A Dragon and His Treasure
by A.I. Kaede
Summary: Dragon Keith finds something unexpected in his treasure box and it changes his life dramatically. (Co author: Lillithrose)
1. Chapter 1

Keith flaps his wings as he lands right outside his cave. He shifts to his two legged form before entering the smaller opening. His tail drags behind, leaving a light trail. In front of his giant pile of treasure is a new chest. He opens it and furrows his eyebrows together at what he sees.

Lance finally sees light so he bounds out of the chest and holds his hands up as if he knew how to fight. He freezes up when he sees a clearly not human staring at him. With a slight shout, he jumps back a bit. "Am I dreaming?!" His voice is loud and the gold tassels on his outfit jungle when he jumps back.

Keith's wings snap open the moment the human takes a fighting stance. "No, you're awake," he says as he forces his wings to close. It's hard to keep them closed when the rest of his body is tense. The human seems harmless but he isn't going to drop all of his defenses.

Lance nearly collapses when Keith's wings snap open. He looks him over for a bit then pushes himself against the wall. Looking around, he realizes he isn't where he remembers being. "Where are we?"

"My cave." Keith sways his tail slowly, trying to calm himself more. This human smells too much of fear to be any sort of attacker. "Why were you in my chest?"

Lance just stares at Keith for a bit, eyeing his scales and...tail? And..."Are you a dragon?" He blurts at last, completely forgetting he was just asked a question himself.

"Yes, I'm a dragon." Keith tilts his head so that Lance could see the small horns poking through his hair. While doing so, his earring also becomes more noticeable. It's a purple stone in the shape of a diamond. "Were you forced into the chest?" he tries again.

Lance sems even more nervous at that. He notes the horns and the gorgeous purple earring but doesn't move far. After clearing his throat, Lance tries to step forward and look around for an escape but he isn't sure which way that is. "I was...hiding. So wasn't forced in...not really anyway." He steps forward again and brushes himself off before clearing his throat. "I - I didn't know this was yours."

Keith lifts his head back up before tilting it to the left slightly. "Why were you hiding?" He gives no indication that he knows what Lance is trying to do. His tail sways a little faster, kicking up more dirt.

Lance gets distracted watching Keith's tail for a minute then shakes his head. "I was hiding from city guards." He swallows then holds up a decorative scarf covered in fanciful gold threads. "I...stole this and so I hid." His hands go back to his sides and he scoots toward the side of the cave he's hoping the exit is at. "But I swear I had no idea it was going to a- to a dragon."

Keith turns slightly to keep his body facing Lance. "Why did you steal? Do humans no longer have a balanced trade system?" Feeling stiffness in his joints, he starts to crack his knuckles.

Lance watches Keith crack his knuckles and freezes up. He takes it as a punishing motion. "Hu-humans _do_ have a trading system but - I -uh - I'm lacking in anything to trade." He swallows hard and bows. "I swear I'm not trying to steal from you though!" His words are shaky, nervous what a dragon would do if they decided he needed to punish him. All the stories of dragons are threatening bedtime stories or scary stories told over a campfire so his actual knowledge of dragons is...lacking at best.

"You don't have anything?" Keith looks at his giant pile of treasure than back to Lance. "How much was the scarf?" He then cracks his neck in both directions.

Lance is growing immeasurably nervous watching Keith crack his bones. He's only ever really seen someone do that before a fight and there is _no way_ he could fight a dragon and win. "I don't really know." Lance responds at last. "I just...really wanted it." Suddenly assuming the scarf was suppose to be Keith's -somehow- he holds it out for Keith, arms shaking a bit. "But-but if it was yours I'm really sorry!" As he speaks Lance bows his head.

"It's not mine. I don't collect a lot of cloth treasures." Keith turns and walks up to his pile. "Since you have none..." He grabs a small brown pouch and stuffs a few gold coins in. "You can have this." He holds out the pouch in Lance's direction. It's a plain one other than the string being a gold color.

Lance flinched when Keith hands him the pouch then just stares at it as if he was handing him a shrunken head or something. "But-but that's yours! And you're a dragon. I don't want to steal from a dragon!"

Keith's face scrunches up in confusion. "You're not stealing. I'm offering it." His keeps his arm up, insisting that the human should take it.

Lance shakes his head and steps backwards. "Why would you offer that to me?!" Lance almost shouts the words he's so nervous now. "I don't have anything to give in return and you're a dragon. Everyone says if you steal from a dragon's hoard you're...I don't know going to die or something." He swallows hard and looks for the exit before starting to scoot his way toward it a little.

Keith frowns. "You're not stealing if I'm giving it to you." Frustration is evident in his voice. "I thought you humans value these things. I have no use for them. I just like them."

Lance looks back to Keith and swallows hard before furrowing his eyebrows in confusion. Momentarily at a loss for words, Lance nervously takes the pouch and opens it. His eyes sparkle when he sees the amount of gold in it but then he shakes his head to snap himself out of it. "We do value gold but we-" he cuts himself off before finally taking an uncertain step toward Keith. "You really wouldn't mind if I took this?" He holds it out and looks it over excitedly again. "I would be able to buy food for weeks! And a new outfit. Oh! And new blankets." He rambles to himself, not knowing if the dragon will be able to hear him or not.

Keith's tail sways faster. "I don't understand you. I already said I'm offering it to you." If you look hard enough, you can see that the ends of Keith's lips are very slightly tilted upward.

"Well, well I don't understand you either!" Lance retorts quickly. He holds out the gold, still a bit nervous, but more calm than he was a second ago. Especially as he watches Keith's tail. It's impossible to hide how interested he is in Keith's wings and tail - not that he will say anything. "Dragons are suppose to be all mean and scary and protective of their gold and you're just...giving it to me all nice like?" He swallows hard. "Is there like...a catch or something? Is it because I was on your treasure? Oh my g- am I your treasure too now?! Is that why?!"

Keith gives Lance another confused look. "Do you want to be my treasure? I never knew humans would want to be considered treasure." He decides to sit down, tired of standing. His tail wraps around him as he pets it. "And why am I supposed to be scary? Is that what the magic ones tell you?"

Lance watches Keith sit before responding. He becomes more and more interested in Keith's inhuman-ness. Somehow, the question "do you want to be my treasure" makes Lance blush so he clears his throat. "I guess It's be better than being street trash, right?" He coughs and shakes his head. Deciding Keith wasn't going to hurt him, Lance scrambles to sit across from him. He never imagined he'd have the chance to _talk_ to a dragon. "That's what everyone's told me anyway. And I don't know any magic ones. I know a clairvoyant. And maybe a future teller but I think she was just a liar." His fingers twitch with the strangest longing to touch his tail.

"Magic ones can't tell the future but they can get hints of what could happen." Keith scoots within arms reach and inspects Lance. "You don't look like trash. If you really are one, you're a very clean one." Without warning, he grabs Lance's wrist and feels for his pulse. "And a very alive one." His long nails light scratch against Lance's skin as he releases the human's arm.

Everything Keith says makes Lance blush more until he grabs his wrist then he freezes and holds his breath. When Keith lets go, Lance's breath escapes again as he exhales and he swears his heart might pop out of his chest. "I try to take care of myself." Lance says once his heart has slowed down a bit. "There's a lake not too far from town and sometimes I sneak into the bathhouse after hours." Lance swallows hard before meeting Keith's gaze again. He finds himself freezing up again so he grips his gypsy pants and quickly spews the first thing to come to mind. "Sssssso what do dragons like to eat?"

"Anything I can find, food that grows off of trees are the easiest to gather. The red and green ones are the best." Keith's tail starts to sway again as he talks. "Do you like them too? I know that humans often pick more than they can eat in order to trade them."

"Food that...like fruit?" Lance asks then thinks. "Red and green..." He looks up, trying to figure out which ones Keith is talking about. "Like -" he uses his hands to show different sizes as he talks, thinking little of the fact that a dragon wouldn't know the terms, "this size," he makes the size of an apple, "this size," he makes the size of a watermelon, "or this size?" He makes the size of a strawberry. Lance was use to language barriers as he travels all over so speaking with his hands and in very basic words is a normal thing to him. "I eat what I can find for the most part. Most fruit bearing plant a belong to people though so I usually sneak that at night." Lance watches Keith's tail sway and smiles a bit. He cannot hide the fascination as his fear fades.

"They are the size of the first one." Keith copies what Lance did with his hands. "What are the other two? Can a tree really hold the big one?" Keith's eyes twinkle with curiosity. This human is very nice company and his voice is nice too.

"Oh apples then probably. Oh or mangos." Lance thinks then shakes his head. "The big one and the little ones both grow on vines actually. The big one is a watermelon and the little ones are strawberries. Have you had either?" Lance sees Keith's curiosity and smiles. "I'm sure with this much money I'd be able to bring a dragon sized feast." Lance laughs a bit then holds it out again. "And you're really sure I can have this?"

"Of course but now that you've told me about these... man gos, water melon and straw berry, you have to bring me some." Keith's tail is borderline wagging. Dragon tails can't move as fast. "If needed, you can take a few more coins."

"I definitely don't need more coins." Lance laughs a bit and shakes his head. "I can get them though...if you tell me how to get back to town anyway." He watches Keith's tail and finally leans forward. "Can I..."he starts then cuts himself off, feeling odd for thinking about asking to touch the dragon in front of him. "N-never mind." He sits back again.

Keith tilts his head slightly. "Can you what?" His tail slows. "I can give you a ride to town if that's what your asking for." It won't be the first time he's used as a convenient transportation method.

"Can- what?" Lance looks at Keith and is clearly confused. "I don't need a-" he shakes his head. "A ride? How?" Lance is absolutely baffled. "I was going to ask to - to touch your tail? Or-or wings but that's kinda weird right?" Blushing as he says it, Lance shakes his head and chuckles. "Yeah, it's weird."

"It's not weird. I'm the first dragon you've seen, right?" Keith stands and pats himself down. "Would you like to touch them in this form or my full dragon form?" He clearly doesn't understand why Lance is suddenly talking weird again.

"You...have different forms?" Lance looks even more confused. He nods though. "But yeah, first dragon." He scoots closer and reaches his hand toward Keith's tail. "It's really ok?" Waiting for Keith to reassure him, Lance then runs his finger tips over Keith's tail and his eyes go wide. "Gods this is so surreal."

Keith slowly open his wings. He turns his body so that he won't accidentally hit Lance. "Most dragons are the same but there are few who have a different type scales."

Lance is fascinated as Keith opens his wings. Assuming its safe to touch those as well, he crawls over and gently rubs his hands along them. "I like yours. They're pretty." He mindlessly compliments as he pets the thinner part of Keith's wings. "Man, these are so cool. Softer than I was expecting. Are they sensitive? It seems like they would be easily hurt." Lance jolts back and waves his hands. "Not-not that I plan to hurt you! Just-just they're thin so...I just- never mind." He sighs and swallows the lump in his throat. "And this is only one of your forms? Do most dragons have different forms?"

Keith blushes slightly. "The wings are a weak spot. It's not that well armored." He closes his wings once he knows for sure that Lance doesn't want to touch it anymore. "Most dragons have two forms. This form is learned after a certain age and dragons that have a strong bond with magic ones have a third form that resembles human more." Keith starts to lead out of the cave. "All dragons are born in the form that you most likely have been told about."

"That's super cool." Lance hops back over to be seated in front of Keith again and is smiling now. The movement makes his belt of fake gold coins jingle a bit. "Is there one you're more comfortable in?" He asks then shakes his head. "And, stronger bonds with magical ones...like...what's that mean? Are there other actual magic people?" Lance is clearly fascinated now and forgets how many questions is asking at once. "Oh! Does it hurt to change forms?"

"I'm pretty used to both forms so it depends on the situation. If you mean sleeping, my dragon form is more comfortable. Changing form only hurts when you're first getting used to it and magic users like..." Keith trails off as he tries to remember what humans call them. "Wizards?" He fiddles with his earring. "This means that we are in a contract with one. Dragons with the third form would have two."

Lance nods and smiles, imagining a sleeping dragon and finding it oddly cute. "Wizards are real?" He scoots up to look at the earring. It's such an unusual stone he can't help but reach out to touch it. "Are contracts good?" Lance finally reaches out to touch Keith's horns.

"I think so? It gives us something to do and that's how I get so much treasure." Keith waits until Lance is done to take a step back. He hunches over and slowly transforms. His whole body flows a warm red as he shifts.

Lance steps back to give Keith room to transform and his jaw drops in awe. Once Keith has fully shifted, Lance walks back up and runs his hand over Keith's scales with sparkling eyes. "They're so pretty." He muses quietly while walking around Keith and being at a loss for words as he is hypnotized by the full dragon form. Reaching out, he runs his hand along Keith's neck like someone might to a horse and smiles. "This is so cool." He whispers at last.

While Lance is walking around, Keith lays down in order to let Lance reach higher up his back easier. Keith's scales shimmer a little. He shakes his scales, making them shimmering. He moves his head in order to nudge Lance with his nose. "Climb on," Keith says in a different voice. It's much deeper and hoarser than before.

Lance watches his scales move and is mesmerized until Keith nudges him. With a chuckle, Lance pets Keith's nose then his eyes go wide when Keith speaks. "You can still talk in this form!" He sounds absolutely astounded. "W-wait. Climb on?" He continues to run his fingers along Keith's scales. "Like, climb on...you?"

Keith nods, nudging Lance again. "How else would I bring you?" He makes his scales shake again, for Lance's amusement.

Lance smiles and rubs his hand along Keith's scales before carefully climbing on his back. "I didn't hurt you right?" He asks once there. Worried despite having been as gentle as he could, Lance leans down to give him an awkward hug.

"You're good. Hold on tight." Keith flaps his wings a few times before starting to run. He can feel Lance's grip tighten as they near a cliff. His front claw land on the edge and he jumps. His wings are fully open so it catches the wind before they drop too far.

Lance's heart races as Keith starts to fly. He grips Keith tighter to keep from yelping when he jumps. Clenching his eyes shut, Lance's breath stops for a minute but then he takes a deep inhale and opens his eyes and gasps. "This is incredible!" He shouts before laughing. His grip loosens a bit and he looks past Keith toward the world below. Heart still racing, Lance's smile grows. "You are so freaking cool!" Lance laughs loudly then hugs him as they fly.

Keith gives a deep chuckle. "Any town in particular?" He doesn't know the name of any fruit but he knows all the towns. He turns is head to look at Lance. The giant smile on the human's face melts his heart and makes him smile. It's not easy to tell when a dragon is smiling or showing off their teeth unless you're able to peel your eyes away from the sharp things and look at their eyes.

"Whichever one is closest is fine." Lance responds before sitting up again and looking up to the sky. He takes a deep breath and enjoys the feeling of wind in his hair. "Are you smiling?" Lance asks when he looks back to Keith upon noticing the toothy grin. "I didn't know dragons could smile." Whatever fear he may have felt is obviously long gone.

Keith's smile gets a little bigger. Without giving a verbal answer, he looks down. They just flew over a town so Keith tilts to the side in order to turn around. He then tilts downward more in order to descend faster. Not far from the town is a big open field, it's purposely open for dragons to land.

Lance holds tight as they land. His breath is lost in the fast decent so he inhales deeply once they hit the field. He hugs Keith tight once they are safely landed then slides off of him. "Are you coming with me?" Lance asks curiously.

"Would you like me to?" Keith's tail sways in the air. He blinks, showing that his eyelids are just like lizards. Seeing how Lance is breathing heavier than before, he makes a mental note to land slower next time.

Lance smiles and laughs. "It'd be rude to have you fly me here and not have you come with." He watches Keith blink and is clearly enthralled. Running back up to Keith, Lance nudges him with his forehead playfully mimicking what Keith did to him. "Well come on."

Keith smiles again. He closes his eyes before shape shifting back to his two legged form. His forehead is against Lance's as he open his eyes. "Ready," he says, tail swaying happily.

Lance grows breathless again watching Keith shift back, especially being close this time. "That is so incredible." Lance chokes out before smiling and clearing his throat. "The marketplace it usually toward the center of town." Lance heads that way, outfit jingling as he walks. "It'll be fun to be there in a crowd."

"Why would it be fun?" Keith asks as he follows right behind. As they enter the town, Keith looks around. He recognizes the town but it's so different since the last time he actually walked through it. He can already feel people staring and pointing at him.

"There's always something to see that way." He looks back to Keith and smiles then tilts his head and hums. Bounding back over to him, Lance pulls the scarf he'd stolen off his waist and holds it up to him. "I think this would look better on you." He grins then looks Keith over and nods before handing it to him. "Take it."

Keith takes it and does his best not to get his nails caught in it. "Like this?" He tries to copy how Lance had it on but it's messy and twisted. His ear twitches, hoping to get Lance's approval.

Lance gives a friendly laugh then nods. "Close. Its a bit tricky, likely especially with nails like that. Let me help." He walks up and goes to grab it. "Do you mind?"

Keith shakes his head and lifts his arms out of the way. More people stop and stare but Keith pays them no mind. He watches Lance's hands, memorizing how it's done so that Lance won't have to help him next time.

Lance seems pleased to help and when he backs up and looks Keith over, he nods then claps once. "Looks awesome." He smiles brilliantly then turns to head toward town. "You're way less scary now that i've talked to you some." Lance looks back then his eyes go wide. "Oh my gods. I never asked your name!" He holds his arm out, The name's Lance."

Keith lightly pouts at Lance calling him scary. This form is far less intimidating than his dragon form. He mimics Lance, not understanding what he is trying to do with his arms. "Keishogane."

Lance laughs then shakes his head while grabbing Keith's hand. "Keishogane...its a pretty name, but a bit long." He smiles. "Do you have a nickname? If not I'm going to give you one!"

Keith looks down at their hands. It feels weird to hold someone else's hand but it's a good weird. "What's a nickname?" He asks as he looks back up and tilts his head.

Lance is smiling when Keith looks back up. "A nick name is...like...a shortened name to call a friend." He touches his lip and takes his hand back. "Keith." He decides after a minute of looking. "I'm gonna call you Keith." Smiling and motioning to follow, Lance heads toward the market.

Keith smiles and gladly follows. "Keith," he says, testing out how it sounds. "And Lance." His tail sways as fast as it can, making people wonder what's going on.

Lance laughs happily when he sees Keith swaying his tail. "Well, Keith, lets go get a whole bunch of fruit!" He bounds around the corner happily then freezes.

"There's the thief from earlier!" A guard shouts before starting off toward him. Lance panics and hides behind Keith without thinking. Keith tenses and shoots open his wings, hiding Lance from sight. The guards skid to a stop, eyes wide. Everyone one else gasps and backs up as far as they can.

Lance watches Keith's wings open and is mesmerized again. However, when he snaps back, Lance remembers he could pay them so he slides out from Keith and holds out his pouch of money. "I can pay for it! I have money!" He pulls one of the coins out and holds it up for them to see.

Keith slowly closes his wings, which causes the guards to relax too. One guard keep his eyes on Keith as he slowly steps forward. Keith's eyes follow the man as well. With slightly shaky hands, the guard takes the gold coin and rushes back to his partner. "Is that more than he needs?" Keith asks Lance, finally taking his eyes off the man.

"I honestly don't know." Lance responds, still nervous about being swept away and thrown in jail...or worse. He's gotten use to running away, but maybe now he can try to just pay for things. After clearing his throat and dusting himself off, Lance stands tall and motions for Keith to keep moving. A few steps in he chuckles. "It's weird to let people see me. I'm normally sneaking around and stuff." Lance looks over to Keith and his eyes sparkle again. Its obvious Lance thinks Keith looks incredible, even if he isn't saying anything.

Keith's cheeks turn a slight red under Lance's gaze. His scales shimmer before he shakes them. "It would be hard for me to do so," he says as he shakes his wings and tail.

Lance watches him shimmer and smiles before shaking his head. "What would be the point of you hiding? You have plenty to get what you need." He finds one of the farmer stands and starts pointing out different things. In face, he might be a little too gung ho and buys a lot of different fruits and vegetables. It's obvious he neither knows how much to give of the gold coins nor do the farmers seems to know how to accept the amount of gold that Lance gives them. Lance turns back to Keith with a huge smile and holds one of the baskets full of goods. "Is this enough?"

Keith smiles and says his tail faster. "That's plenty." He nuzzles his nose against Lance's cheek in appreciation. "Are we getting your other things here too?" He doesn't remember what Lance listed earlier when he first accepted the gold.

"My other things?" Lance forgot he asked for anything. Did he ask for other things? "I don't have things I need really. I have clothes and we got food." He hoists the basket up and starts walking back the way they came. "I just want you to try some of this with me!"

Keith follows right behind Lance, his eyes on the basket. He's trying to inspect each one without reaching for it. They all smell delicious but some look odd to him. "You will tell me the name of each one, right?"

"Of course!" Lance looks over to Keith with a huge smile. "Anything you want to know that I know, I will gladly tell you." He snatches up one of the blueberries and eats one with one hand before awkwardly hoisting the basket over to one side while grabbing one for Keith and offering it to him. "These are my favorites. They are called blueberries."

"Is it because it's blue?" Keith asks before eating out of Lance's hand. He bites to get the juice out then immediately swallowing. "It's so tiny," he complains with a pout. He looks into the basket and finds that there is still a lot of blueberries left.

"Is it because it's blue that it's called a blueberry or do I like it because it's blue?" Lance chuckles then motions down to his outfit which consists mainly of blues. "I just like it because its sweet, but not too sweet." He grabs a handful and hands it to Keith. "You're meant to eat more than one." Looking around, Lance stops walking. "Did you want to eat here or back in your cave?"

Keith happily eats more. He licks his lips, satisfied that it took longer to eat. "That's up to you. I don't mind either way." Despite saying that, his eyes show that he wants to eat more now. "If we go back to the cave, you'd need to make sure none fall out."

"That's true." Lance thinks back to the flight and his eyes light up. "They might not make it back in one piece huh?" He looks around then heads off to the direction of the park he knows. Once there, he sits down at a picnic table then grabs a few of the other fruits. "I didn't think to get a knife though." His voice sounds disappointed.

Keith carefully sits next to Lance, making sure his tail is out of the way. "What do you need to cut?" He asks, looking over the ones in Lance's hand. "You can't just bite into those?" He taps his nail against the one that looks the hardest but it easily punctures through.

Lance laughs a bit when that happens. "Nope. Can't bite into it." He hoists the watermelon out of the basket and hands it to Keith and does the same with a couple of mangos. "Not sure the rind on the melon would taste very good either. Mind helping?" Watching ask Keith cuts them with ease, Lance is seriously growing more and more fascinated.

Keith doesn't know if he is doing it right but he cuts the fruits into pieces like he saw in town. Once he's done, he licks the juice off his nails. "Is that good?"

"Heck yeah!" Lance grabs a piece of the watermelon for himself and hands one over to Keith with a smile. After taking a bite and swallowing it, Lance nods. "Good yeah?"

Keith takes a big bite. He nods while he eats and some juice drips onto his fingers again. "This one is called a melon?"

"Oh right! Yeah it's called a watermelon." Lance takes a few more bites then continues explaining. "There are lots of different melons, this one is just my favorite. It's the sweetest of them all. And the juiciest." He smiles then spits one of the seeds out before taking another bite then grabs a piece of the mango and hands it to Keith. "This one's a mango. It's really good too."

"Wait, you don't eat the black things?" Keith asks, worried about why Lance spat it out. He knows he has already eaten a few. Keith holds the manga in one hand and sniffs it. It's not as juicy as the water melon.

"Not usually." Lance responds then looks up to see the worry. "They aren't bad for you or anything. Just...kinda gross." He laughs then watches Keith try the mango. "Which do you like best so far?" His voice is muffled as he is facing the basket, grabbing strawberry and raspberries now. Looking all the food over, Lance's smile grows. When was the last time he had _this much food_ in front of him?! His excitement might just show a little as he hands Keith a couple of both new berries, telling him the name as he does.

"The mango," Keith answered. Other than apples, it's his favorite. Blueberries are too small and watermelons are too watery. He takes the other berries and eats each one quickly. They're all yummy.

Lance smiles and nods. "That's my favorite too." He agrees before eating more. It's surprising how much he's able to stomach, but Lance has trained himself; if there's food in front of him, he needs to eat it because who knows how long it will be there. "So..." After clearing his throat, Lance finishes his thought, "What happens now?"

"Back to the cave? Unless you have somewhere else you need to go." Keith tried not to show how sad he is with the thought of Lance departing so soon. It's fun having this human around.

"You'd welcome me back?" Lance perks up right away then hops out of his seat. "Do we get to fly back too?!" He clearly doesn't seem to be in a hurry to get back to wherever it is he came from. Still nervous to over step boundaries, he doesn't yank Keith out of his seat, but he looks like he wants to.

"Unless you want to hike but it seems like you like flying more." Keith smiles as he steps away from the table. He hunches over as he changes back into a dragon. He huffs as he lowers himself so Lance can climb on.

Lance audibly "awes" as Keith transforms back. He watches with glistening eyes before darting over and hopping on Keith's back. "You're so pretty!" The words burst from his mouth before he can think about them. Running a hand over Keith's scales, Lance nods. "Alright. I'm ready when you are!"

Keith's scales shimmers for a second before he stands and starts to flap his wings. The trees around start to tilt away due to the wind pressure. It doesn't take long for his body to start going up. Once he's a good distance off the ground, Keith starts to move forward.

Lance watches everything excitedly and shields his eyes when everything starts to blow around. As soon as they're in the air, Lance runs his hands over Keith's scales and laughs. "You're right. I would have never been able to hold all that fruit with you flying." His voice is happy and just loud enough to be heard.

Keith's chest rumbles. Thinking Lance will appreciate it, he flies around rather than going straight home. He doesn't know if Lance will be able to handle a flip so he doesn't try. He glances back at Lance, smiling at the human's smile.

Lance watches everything fly by in awe. His smile is huge and his outfit makes a pleasant jingle as the wind rushes through it. After getting a bit more confident, Lance raises a hand up to let it soar through the air as well and laughs at the feeling. "This is seriously amazing!" He shouts before looking back to Keith and putting his hands back on his scales.

Keith stops beating his wings and just glides as he turns back towards his cave. It's slower than earlier and a lot calmer. "Are humans able to sleep in caves?" He asks as he looks back at Lance again.

"Most don't but I've done it more than once." Lance tilts his head and looks down to Keith. "Was that a sly way to tell me I'm staying?" He raises both arms, letting himself fly as Keith glides. As the winds blows over him, Lance closes his eyes and revels in the feeling.

"Do you not want to? I just assumed..." Keith trails off and looks forward again. He can see his cave entrance nearing faster.

"I'd love to." Lance quickly responds as Keith trails off. He hugs him as Keith lands then laughs and hops down. Offering his hand to pet Keith's snout, Lance smiles. "Do you like being pet like that or is it kinda just annoying?"

Keith moved his head to meet Lance's hand. He huffs, making smoke rise from his nose this time.

Lance watches this and jumps a bit. He moves back to pet more when Keith doesn't say he doesn't like it. "Can you like...breathe fire and shit like they say?" Asking while finally pulling away from Keith, Lance looks like a child as he seems anxious for the answer.

Keith looks up and breathes fire. It lasts a few seconds and the fire goes up high. Once the fire is all gone, he looks back at Lance with a grin. "Fire dragons are actually not all that common."

Lance is in awe as he watches Keith breathe fire. He doesn't blink until the fire is gone. When Keith speaks, Lance looks back to him, jaw still dropped. "I didn't even think _dragons_ were common. Let alone ones that can _actually_ breathe fire. You are so freaking cool." He shakes his head to get him out of his trance then runs up and pet Keith again with a laugh.

Keith's chest rumbles again. Playfully, he huffs out smoke. "The most common dragon don't need wings to fly."

Lance touches Keith's wings and smiles. "But your wings are so pretty." He pauses to think. "And...how do they fly if not with wings?"

"They control the air so they slither through the sky. " Keith's tail sways as if trying to show the motion. "Is there more things that other humans tell you about dragons?"

"I like wings better." Lance muses as he runs his hands along Keith's wings. He sits and thinks for a bit. "Most of what I know is all scary. Like, don't cross a dragon of you'll get eaten. Don't steal a dragon's treasure or you'll be sorry. Blah blah blah." Lance runs his hands along Keith's scales and grins. "Just spending time with you has proven that much wrong at least."

"Maybe someone did get eaten because you should never steal from us. Most people don't know that some dragons will just give if asked."

"Dragons-dragons really will eat people?" Lance asks in surprise as he runs his hands over Keith's scales. "That seems ...well it's certainly intimidating. Rule number one, never piss off Keith." His voice is playful as he speaks this. After a few minutes, he sits down and cuddles into Keith. "I thought since you were more...reptilian that you'd be colder." He hums as he relaxes into Keith.

"That's a good rule," Keith chuckles. When Lance cuddles into him, he shifts to curl a bit in order to make it more comfortable for the human. "Wingless dragons tend to be colder. Our body warmth ties with what element we are."

Lance's smile grows when Keith curls around him. "Then I'm glad you aren't an ice dragon...if that's a thing." He runs his hand along the scales of Keith's tail and smiles. "Plus the red is really pretty."

Keith smiles and rests his head on the ground. "There is a dragon for every element you can name. Ice dragons are the coldest ones and have scales that are lighter than the sky or pure white."

"That's pretty cool." Lance hums quietly then nuzzles into Keith. "I think I'd like you best still." He responds quietly, voice growing sleepy from comfort as his hand continues to pet the scales. "I'm glad I'm your treasure."

Keith smiles and his scales shake. He'll do his best to take care of Lance. He moves his head in order to lightly nuzzle against Lance. Lance feels slightly cold to him but that's only due to his body heat being warmer than humans.

Lance smiles when Keith curls around him and starts to pet his snout. He drifts off to sleep, still smiling and still petting the scales until he's all the way asleep, curls up against Keith.

Keith waits until Lance's arm falls limp before he allows himself to show how tired he is. He watches Lance's sleeping form as his eyes get heavier. He tucks his nose into Lance's stomach before finally closing his eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

Lance doesn't wake up for a long time, having slept better than usual. When he does, he jolts awake, accidentally moving Keith when he does. His heart races as he looks around and remembers where he is.

Keith lifts his head, showing no signs of drowsiness due to having been awake already. "Is something wrong?" He asks as softly as he can in this form.

"No no." Lance snuggles into Keith and sighs. "I'm just use to waking in a hurry and not getting much sleep." He runs his hands along Keith's scales. "Did I wake you?" His tone is one of worry as he pets Keith and smiles.

"No. I woke up before you." Keith lays his head back down and tucks his nose back into Lance's stomach. "Do you need to hurry somewhere?"

Lance smiles and hugs Keith's snout. "Good. I would have felt bad if I woke you." He snuggles and laughs a bit. "Where would a thief have to hurry to besides away?" Perking up he shakes his head. "Not that I'm trying to get away." He adds before laying his head back down. "Do you have things to do today?"

"No, unless something pops up." He rubs the tip of his nose as he asks," Do you have things to do or do you just trade things you steal?" He doesn't mean to sound rude, he's just curious.

Lance smiles when Keith rubs against him but can't help but pout a little at what Keith says. "Typically I move from city to city and spend my time just...surviving?" He laughs a bit. "Awfully useful I am huh?"

"Do you need more food then?" Keith asks, more worried about that than Lance's last question. "We can get more."

"I'm not hungry yet." Lance pets Keith again before stretching and finally standing up. "But soon we can get more food. Maybe we could even go to a restaurant!" His eye a light up at that. "I haven't been to one of those in ages!"

Keith slowly gets on his feet too. "A what? Rest urr ant?" He tilts his head to the side. He's trying to imagine what Lance is talking about and all he can imagine is a human built thing for ants to rest in.

Lance smiles over to Keith and chuckles. "It's a place where you go eat food. They make it for you." Lance thinks about it, clearly daydreaming about the times he's been there in the past. "It's delicious and amazing. We should go."

"Okay." Keith starts to slowly walk out of the cave. "Which town?" He asks as he looks back at Lance.

Lance follows behind him and stretches more once they are outside. He looks up to Keith and smiles. "Whichever one you want to fly to I suppose. There are restaurants everywhere." Grabbing Keith's leg, Lance laughs heartily. "You really don't mind taking me?!" His smile is glowing and giddy.

"No. You want to get food there and food is important." Keith looks at Lance's hips to make sure he has the coin bag. "Maybe they will have things we can bring the food home in."

Lance smiles then climbs up onto Keith's back and hugs him tight. "We can buy more food too if you want. Cook it over a fire. Get some fresh bread." Still hugging him close, Lance keeps rambling. "Fresh bread and cheese! Oh and wine. We should get wine. Its good. Especially if you're cold." He scratches Keith's neck like a dog then laughs. "Not that you likely get cold too easily."

Keith's chest rumbles. "We will get anything you want," he says since he has no idea what types of food Lance is naming. He shakes his scales before running and jumping off the cliff. He flies to a town that is more familiar with dragons due to the number of magic ones that go there.

Lance smiles and laughs almost the whole way there. "I hope I never get use to flying!" He shouts playfully as he rubs Keith's back. Once they are landed, he hops down and smiles up at Keith. "Let's go have some breakfast!"

Keith transforms before following Lance into town. Not as many people looked at them and it was more of people being surprised that a gypsy is with a dragon. Keith spots a potion store and taps on Lance's shoulder. "Would you like to see magic ones?"

Lance looks around excitedly, almost bouncing into his step as he looks around. When Keith touches his shoulder, Lance quickly looks over and smiles at him before realizing what was asked. He makes two fists and nods animatedly. "Can we?! That would be cool." His smile manages to grow at that.

Keith gives a small smile before leading Lance into the shop. Inside is covered wall to wall in ingredients, bottles, and premade potions. The cashier is all the way in the back and there is only two other customers.

Lance looks around in amazement. He is careful not to touch anything but does eye just about every potion and bobble they pass. Once or twice he tugs on Keith's arm to have him look at something too. "These are so pretty." His voice almost sounds distant as he admires a couple of the colorful bottles.

"Is there one that catches your eyes?" The cashier asks. She has long white hair and her eyes are a pretty mixture of pink and blue.

Lance stares at her for a minute in awe. He doesn't realize his jaw has fallen slightly open so he shakes his head and closes it again before looking back. "I don't really know anything about any of them." Shrugging as he points to one of them that almost glows blue, he smiles back at her. "This one's pretty though." Then he spies another and smiles brilliantly before pointing to it. "And that one looks like you when your scales shine!" Lance bursts excitedly before pulling Keith next to him

Keith's scales shimmer and his cheeks grow slightly pink. That makes the cashier chuckle. "What do the potions do?" Keith asks as his scales shake away the shine.

The girls smiles and answers," The blue one lets you fly for an extended period of time and the second one makes you invisible."

"I could fly too?!" Lance grabs it and carefully stares at the bottle as though he could see the magic in it. Then he looks over to Keith and grins excitedly. "We could fly together." When Lance faces the girl again, he hugs the bottle gently. "How much are these?"

The cashier chuckles. "I'll let you have that one for me so long as you give me a bit of information about yourself. It's not often that a dragon comes with someone other than their contractor. Name's Allura by the way." She smiles and rests her head on her hand.

Lance holds the bottle and looks at her nervously. "For-for free?!" He holds it close and nods then looks back to Keith with a huge smile. "My name is Lance." As he hops his way over to Allura, Lance drags Keith over as well. With a friendly grin, he bows theatrically. "What did you want to know?"

Keith's tail sways slowly. "My name is Keishogane."

"Oh! You're Lotor's dragon," Allura says, recognizing the name. She looks at Keith's ear, the right ear still has Lotor's contract earring but there isn't any other. "How did you two become friends? You're not contracted with him."

Lance looks over to Keith and tilts his head. He looks at Keith's ear and spies the earring. How does she know all of this just from looking at him? With a shrug of his shoulder, Lance decides to speak. "I snuck into his treasure and when he opened it, I was there. Are- are we friends?" He asks as he looks over to Keith almost nervously.

"I think so?" Keith doesn't really know either. Lance is his treasure and since Lance is a human, does that automatically mean they are friends?

"Did you...want to be friends?" Lance looks both excited and nervous about the prospect. He hasn't made many friends in his time, and to make friends with a dragon feels unreal. Then he looks back to Allura and brushes himself off. "Sorry about that. Did you want to know anything else?"

"Sure," Keith smiles. He doesn't plan to treat Lance any different than he has been so he hopes that what friends do.

Allura waves her hand and chuckles lightly. "Oh no, it's alright. It's funny that you were in his chest though. I can't think of any other questions right now but be sure to come by again."

Lance nods to Allura then looks back to Keith and smiles while continuing to hold the bottle close. He stays close to Keith as they walk, Lance clearly still taking in the town with curious eyes. After a few minutes, he laughs. "I have a dragon friend." He looks over to Keith and gives a big smile. "So...will your...the contract person...will they be okay with you having a friend like me?"

Keith's tail slows down. "He shouldn't care so long as it doesn't interfere with what he needs to do." It's not like contractors get to control the dragon's personal life without permission. Some dragons like to be taken cared of by their magic one. "Do you not like that I'm contracted with someone?"

"Well that's good!" Lance bumps into Keith playfully and gives him a friendly smile. "I don't mind. Well, so long as he is nice to you. Otherwise I'll be all," he jumps into a silly fighting stance and swings a few punches toward the air, "be nice to Keith or he'll breathe fire at you!" Punching a few more times, he finally laughs then stands back up and points toward one of the restaurants. "Can we go there?"

Keith chuckles as Lance fights the air and his tail sways faster. "Sure, we can go in there. Is this a rest ur ant?" He looks around as they enter the building. There is a lot of human seats and humans in here.

Lance smiles and nods. "Restaurant, yeah." He waits for them to be led to a table then looks it over then back to Keith. "Will you be comfortable sitting here? If not we can just buy food and make it back at home?" The concern in his voice is almost cute despite him not realizing it.

Keith smiles," I'll be okay." He lets Lance sit down first before taking a seat. Luckily these seats have a very open back so there wasn't much restricting his wings and tail. He watches as the waiter places two thin books on the table. The title read menu. "Do you just tell them what you want?" He asks as he looks to Lance.

"Well you typically read it from the menu here." Lance scoots close and points to different things. "Can you read this language? If not I can read it to you." He looks over to Keith and gets lost momentarily as he looks into his eyes and over his scales. Not meaning to, Lance sighs and runs his fingers along Keith's scales. "You are so pretty."

Keith blushes again, scales shimmering. He doesn't shake his scaled this time, letting it stay shiny. "I can read but I won't know what any of it is," he says, trying to distract himself. He pulls the menu open and there isn't a lot of photos. "There is a lot of meat," he mumbles as he flips through the pages.

Lance's eyes sparkle as he watches Keith's scales. He gets distracted for longer than he would like, fingers tracing over some of the scales before remembering he was suppose to be helping Keith. Going through the list one by one, Lance lists off items and patiently describes what each one is. "Did you want more with meat or would you rather have something sweet?"

"Can I not have both?" Keith asks. Lance bought a lot of different fruit yesterday, can they not do the same here? His tail sways slightly as it hangs down behind him.

"Oh we could get a sampler meal!" Lance points to it and explains everything that comes in it. He lists off fruits, vegetables, meats, dips and breads. As he does, Lance seems to get excited just thinking about it. Scooting somehow closer to Keith without meaning to, he points to drinks and lists them off. "I like carrot juice a lot." The fact is added when the list has a wide variety of juices.

Keith's tail sways faster to match Lance's excitement. "Let's get that then! Do we get two of everything since we got two books?" He looks between the two books. The one in front of Lance is still closed since he's been pointing everything out on the one in front of Keith.

"Oh, we can get two." Lance tilts his head when he sees Keith looking over to his menu. "These are the same, it's just most look at their own menu." He smiles then looks back to Keith and grins. "Do you want your own plate or should we share? We can always order more if we're hungry." Wasting food is the greatest sin in the life of a street rat.

"Do you want your own plate?" Keith knows that he ate more of the fruit than Lance did. He also assumes having separate plates is like having two separate watermelons. "We could try to bring them home, right?"

Lance shrugs and cuddles into Keith a bit, already missing the warmth of Keith wrapped around him. "We can just order some to take home." He looks up to Keith and smiles then shrugs. "I'm not too picky really. I just like food! And I don't have to worry about stealing it this time either!"

Keith smiles. "Then we'll share and order more of which ones we like more." He nuzzles against Lance. "So... Do we need to call the human back or do we wait for something?"

Lance smiles when Keith nuzzles into him then nods. "The human is called a waiter and they'll be back over soon." As if on cue, the server shows back up and takes their order. While they wait, Lance looks the place over and grins. "It's nice to be in a restaurant and know I'll be able to actually pay for the food." At that, he looks back to Keith and gives a huge hug. "That's all thanks to you!"

Keith's eyes widen with shock. He blinks it away before wrapping his arms around Lance. "But you're the one who ended up in my treasure. Had you stuffed a few coins before it got to me, I would never know. I never count how much I'm given." His collection is too big for him to care the exact amount he's given, not that he truly ever cared though.

"And risk pissing off a dragon?!" Lance shakes his head and laughs. "I think I'd rather not." He laughs more and then shrugs. "Plus it just...feels nice to know I didn't have to steal it." Scratching the back of his head, Lance hums in thought. "I'll have to figure out some way to pay you back." He thinks about it for a while and shrugs with a little laugh. "I don't know what dragons like, let alone what you don't have. So...tell me!" Lance looks to him with pink cheeks, never having pulled all the way away from Keith's hug.

Keith tilts his head. "But you're my treasure and my friend, I don't need anything in return." He nuzzles Lance again. "You're already teaching me a lot of new things. Does that not count?" _Do humans not use knowledge in trades?_

Lance feels an odd flutter in his chest at Keith's words and his smile grows. Not sure what to say in response, he just shrugs then watches as the server brings the food over with childlike awe. "If that is what you want from me, I'll gladly pay you back by teaching you anything I know." He explains as he reaches out to grab the first thing - a slice of warm bread - and takes a bite but then freezes and looks over to Keith. "You eat too, ok?" He blushes a little when he realizes how quickly he was ready to eat without waiting for Keith.

Keith nods and also grabs a slice of bread. He squishes it in the middle, trying to figure out which one this is. "Is this... Bread?" He asks before taking a bite. It doesn't have a lot of flavor but he likes it.

"It is!" Lance takes a huge bite and swallows it before talking more. "You've never had bread?" He sounds surprised as he takes another bite. "I guess I'll have a lot more to teach you than I thought I would." His face lights up as he grabs a piece of cheese and takes a quick bite. Despite not being in any rush, he can't help but eat in a hurry, out of years of practice. "I don't mind though, means I'll get to be useful for a while longer." Smiling before taking another bite, Lance playfully elbows Keith then starts to explain everything else on the plate.

"I don't think you'll ever be not useful," Keith says before trying the cheese too. It feels like it melts in his mouth. He can tell that this isn't any kind of plant. "How do humans make cheese?" He asks as he reaches for more. There is something underneath the cheese's unique smell that is familiar.

"That's...really nice to say." Lance blushes a bit, not use to compliments, even ones as simple as that. He then looks up and grabs another piece of cheese. "I'm not entirely sure of the whole process, but," Lance pauses long enough to take a bite and swallow it, "I know it starts with milk and flavors and they mix it together and stuff." With a shrug, Lance laughs a little. "Ok, so I really don't know at all. Other than it starts with milk."

Keith squints his eyes as he eats. He has heard that word before but what is it? "Is milk a white drink?" He vaguely remembers being offered some before. He watched the human take it from a cow.

Lance nods. "It's white and a little sweet...kinda?" He tries to decipher how to explain how milk tastes. "It's...pretty good and super useful." As he eats a bit more before grabbing some of the berries on the plate, Lance looks confused. "What did you use to eat? It seems weird that you wouldn't know this already. Or maybe you just don't know it in this language..." He trails off and blushes a little before looking down, realizing what he said might be rude.

Keith frowns slightly. "I didn't tell you before since you were scared of me in the beginning but I hunt for food." He uses his nails to cut a piece meat and eats it. "Humans heat it differently, I can't tell which animal it is."

Lance pokes Keith's cheek when he frowns and smiles at him. When Keith looks at him, Lance makes an even bigger smile. "That makes sense." He grabs a piece of the meat and eats it. "I bet that's cool to watch." Musing for a second, Lance puts his head on his hand. "And you probably hunt way bigger stuff than like...rabbits and stuff huh?" He looks over to Keith and smiles again. "This? It's lamb."

"You humans do a lot to make a lamb look like this. I just burn the fur off." Keith scoots a little closer. "If I hunt for food for you, do humans have a special way to cook in order to be able to eat it?" He wants to share with Lance but he doesn't want to make him sick with it.

"Just with fire I think." Lance smiles when Keith scoots closer and decides to offer him one of the olives as he talks. "I know when I'm able, I roast it. Basically stab a stick through it and cook it over a fire." He can't help but laugh more as he speaks. "That sounds so brutal. I guess it is in a way." Lance grabs an olive for himself and eats it quick before sitting back, slowly becoming full. "This is nice."

Keith's lips brush against Lance's fingers as he eats the olive. "I snatch the animals off the ground and crush them while I fly back to my cave. That's more brutal," he chuckles. He then notices that Lance isn't eating as fast as before. "Are you done?"

Lance's stomach does a flip at the feeling of Keith's lips and his cheeks turn pink. He blinks a few times, a little baffled as to why it happened but shakes his head and laughs. "That sounds like it would be so cool to watch though." Leaning forward to grab a few more grapes, Lance shakes his head. "There's food left. I don't want to waste it." Maybe if he eats, he will be able to ignore the bizarre feeling in his stomach.

"We can just bring it home." Keith nudges Lance's cheek with his nose. He then steals a grape. "It won't be wasting it if we eat it later." He had noticed that Lance's face felt warmer but just watched Lance for any signs of illness.

Lance smiles at Keith and nods. "I...guess you're right." He can't help but give a giddy grin at the thought of _home_ even if it is just a cave. "So are there other things I should know about dragons?"

Keith looks away in thought. It's hard to think of what to saw due to it being natural to him. The only things that come to mind are ones that aren't really appropriate to start with. Then he remembers his earring. "When my earring glows, it means I'm being called."

Lance leans in to touch the earring, gently turning it in his fingers. He smiles when he sits back. "So it's a magic earring." He obviously states. "Does it work both ways? I mean, like, if you need him will it light up that way?"

"Yeah but it's rare for dragons to call for the magic ones. Most magic ones have one on each ear. If the magic ones are okay with it, dragons can be in multiple contracts."

"Would you have multiple earring then?" Lance doesn't realize that he is still really close to the earring, admiring it as if waiting for it to glow. "And, are they all different colors?"

Keith smiles and sways his tail fast. "Each magic one has their own special earing. Different colors and different shapes."

"That's so cool!" He smiles and looks the earring over then makes a surprised face. "Is yours red for fire? Or are they both purple?" Lance sighs. "I wonder what mine would look like...if I had magic obviously. I'd want it to be blue." He laughs then playfully elbows Keith. "Sorry. I ask a lot of questions."

Keith smiles wider and elbows Lance back. "I don't mind. Dragons don't have their own earring, the magic ones wear their own and give matching ones to us." The only other earring dragons would have is mating earrings or decorative ones without stones.

"Aww that's a shame. I bet one that's as red as you would look amazing." Lance smiles then looks the earring over again. He touches his own ear without thinking. "Does it hurt to get earrings?" The worry on his face is apparent as he looks over Keith's earring again. He is oblivious to the looks they are getting. It's not often you see a gypsy be so friendly with a dragon and vice versa.

Keith frowns and rubs his cheek against Lance's. "No, it didn't hurt." Even in human form, he has high tolerance to pain. He pulls his head back to look at Lance's face. It's only now does he realize what a pretty blue Lance's eyes are. He gets lost in them for a moment before blinking himself back. "Did you want earrings?"

Lance blushes a bit when Keith stares at him for a minute. He looks off to the side almost nervously and shakes his head while shrugging. "I don't know." He responds with a sideways smile before looking back to Keith, who has equally as hypnotizing eyes, despite Lance pretending to not be mesmerized. "I've never thought about it before really."

Keith lifts an arm to lightly trace his fingertips down Lance's ear. "I think they would look pretty on you. A golden ring..." He trails off as he reaches the bottom of Lance's ear. "There should be a store here if you would like to look at some." Keith's scales shimmer at the thought of having matching decorative earrings. Friend's can do that right?

Lance's eyes go a bit wide when Keith traces his ear. His breath catches and most of what Keith says is drowned out by his heart thudding in his chest. _a gold ring and a stone_ he hears so he touches his ear and smiles. "That would be...cool." His words almost fail him but Lance speaks regardless. "If you think it'd look good, we can go look." He smiles and watches Keith's scales shimmer and accidentally gasps. "That's so pretty." He mumbles quietly.

That makes the scales shimmer more despite Keith trying to shake it away. "Shall we ask to take the leftovers then?" He asks, trying to get Lance's gaze off him. It's strange having someone so fascinated by everything he does.

Lance watches Keith for a minute more then blinks hard a few times and nods. "Let's do that." He makes sure they get everything wrapped up then pays for the food, with an oddly proud smile, and starts out the door. Once outside, he looks back around then over to Keith. "Where to? I don't know this town."

"It's over that way," Keith points down a path before leading the way. His tail sways happily behind him and every few steps he'll glance back at Lance. It doesn't take long until Keith stops in front of the store. The window display shows a lot of decorative earrings and a few stone ones.

Lance looks around at every building they pass, admiring the many strange things. Magic towns are so cool. He looks back to Keith and his heart skips an unusual beat. When he sees the display, Lance awes at it all, eyes going wide. Never in his life did he imagine he would get to have something like this. "These look too expensive." He finally snaps himself out of it and shakes his head.

"We have gold coins, it's more than enough for a decorative one," Keith says with a bright smile. His sharp teeth clearly visible. He pushes open the door and enters. There is a ton more earrings on display inside.

"Hello," the cashier greets with a big smile. "Looking for anything in particular?"

"Are you sure?" Lance asks as he looks the earring over anyway. His eyes sparkle as he admires them. When the cashier greets him, Lance - out of habit - jumps a bit then scrambles to hold up the pouch. "I have money to buy things!" He announces loudly.

The cashier chuckles. "I see. Does that mean you're just looking around?" Keith nods as he gently pushes Lance's arms down. "My name is Hunk, let me know if you need any assistance."

"R-right, yeah." Lance puts the pouch down and blushes a bit before nodding and turning to look things over again. He scoots close to Keith and smiles. "Are there any you think would look good?"

"Gold rings," Keith repeats. It's totally _not_ his dragon instincts talking. Next to each gold earring is a silver version and there are plenty of ring earrings with different other decorations on it. "What do you want?" He asks, leaning his head closer to Lance.

Lance smiles and nods and his heart jumps into his throat when Keith leans closer. It's bad enough that when he tries to talk, nothing comes out so he just shrugs and keeps looking before peeking at Keith from the corner of his eye. _Why is he so pretty?!_ After looking through a few things, he points to a more decorative pair with a stone that is swirled blue and purple. "That's gorgeous." He muses quietly.

"Very pretty," Keith agrees with a nod. He can't seen to look away from it now, it's very captivating.

Hunk covers his mouth to hide his smile and muffle his giggle. The two don't seem to notice the sign above them that says mating earrings. Oh how he hopes they pick that one so he can squeal about it to Shay later.

Lance gnaws on his lower lip before turning to look at Keith. "You can't make fun of me if it hurts me." He demands stubbornly before grabbing the earring. Something in him makes Lance put the earring next to Keith's ear and smiles. "It looks good on you too." His smile is softer than he realizes and his cheeks turn a slight pink.

"I won't," Keith smiles. When Lance's cheeks turn pink, his does too. His scales shimmer as he wraps his tail around his leg. "One each?" He asks softly.

Poor Hunk almost dies from just watching them. The two are so cute and he wishes Shay was here to witness it for herself.

Lance nods. "That works." He smiles and holds them both close before taking them up to Hunk and pulling out money. Nervously, he hands the piercings to Hunk. "I want to buy these." His voice is quiet. "Do you pierce them here too?"

Hunk quickly put his hand down when they turn to him. "Of course. Let me give you your change first." He pulls out a smaller dark blue coin pouch and dumps quiet a few silver coins in before handing it to Lance. He is far more used to exchanges between gold and silver. He then opens the door to the back. "The piercing station is back here."

"Oh change. Right." Lance takes the money and nervously follows Hunk. He slinks back next to Keith and bows his head. "You promise not to make fun of me right?" Reaffirming what Keith hand already said, he walks almost shoulder to shoulder with him as they come to the area where it's obvious the piercings are done.

"Promise." Keith nuzzled Lance with his nose, thinking it will help Lance relax.

Hunk almost squeals out loud but instead he shakes his hand excitedly. "Who is going first?"

Lance finds himself blushing more and his heart racing. Nodding before looking over to Hunk, Lance steps forward. "I will. Otherwise I'll just keep getting more nervous." He bites his lower lip and takes his seat before gripping the arm of the chair painfully hard. Truth be told, he's never dealt well with pain.

Keith takes a seat next to Lance and lays his head on Lance's hand. It takes all of Hunk's will power not to squeal. "It won't hurt, I promise," he says as he starts to prepare.

Lance swallows and nods but when he sees the needle, he tenses up and laughs nervously. He listens to Hunk's directions and holds still as Hunk cleans the spot. Clenching his eyes shut before the needle goes in, Lance grips the arm of the chair even tighter when the needle pierces him. He can feel Hunk placing the piercing and tries to remember to breathe. Once Hunk says he's done, Lance reaches up and touches it with a huge exhale. "Does-does it look good?"

"Looks great!" Hunk says as he prepares for Keith. The dragon lifts his head up to look and nods. Keith nuzzles Lance again. "Just to make sure, the other contractor agree, right? Also, what type of magic do you use?" Hunk asks.

Lance nuzzles against Keith too then looks confused. "Other contractor?" He shakes his head. "I'm not contracted with Keith. Just a friend. And I...Don't have any magic." He looks a bit sad at this.

"You- oh ok." Hunk shakes away the shock. "Sorry for bringing it up." He then turns to Keith. "Would you like to switch seats or shall I move over there?"

"Doing it here is fine," Keith answers, not wanting to make Lance move. Hunk nods with a smile and walks over to Keith.

"No it's ok!" Lance feels bad for making Hunk apologize. "It would just be cool to have magic is all." He explains as he watches Hunk pierce Keith's ear. Needless to say, Lance is a bit jealous when Keith doesn't so much as flinch. Though, he smiles brilliantly once its in place. Walking up, Lance eyes it then smiles. "It looks amazing."

Keith smiles back. "We match," he says, seeing how the earrings are face to face while Lance is facing him.

Hunk feels bad for ruining their little moment but he has to tell them. "Make sure you clean it every night until it heals fully and don't take it out either."

Lance presses his forehead against Keith's and smiles. "It makes me feel special." He jumps a bit when Hunk talks but smiles and nods. Just as they go to leave, Shay walks up to Hunk and covers the huge smile forming on her face.

"That one called to them?" She asks in surprise to Hunk. "I was honestly starting to think they would never find their match."

"The funniest part is that they don't know yet. They said they were just friends," Hunk says before going into squeal mode," They are so cute though! While I was piercing the human, the dragon rested their head oh his hand! And they nuzzled in front of me!"

"They don't know?!" Shay watches them leave and grabs Hunk's shoulders. "How did you not squeal?! They are adorable." She listens to Hunk's recollection and awes just picturing it. "That's so sweet. Oh my gosh. I would have died for sure."


	3. Chapter 3

Outside, Lance looks back to the earring in Keith's ear and smiles. "It really does look great," He says quietly before spying a good stand and deciding to buy some things to bring back home. "Is there anything you want?" Lance asks curiously before looking back to Keith and smiling.

Keith sees the stand that Lance decided to check out. "Not really, unless you think we need things." He looks over the booth. "What are these?"

Lance goes through and explains what each thing is, buying a few before heading toward the edge of town. "I'm really glad I snuck into your treasure." He announces bashfully once they aren't surrounded by other people.

"I'm glad too," Keith smiles. "You're a very fun human." He brushes his arms against Lance's. "Are you going to use your potion to go home?" He opens his wings, ready to take off in this form.

Lance grabs the bottle, having half forgotten about it and lights up. "We can fly home together!" He shouts excitedly but then looks worried. "But, should I save it in case I need it?" Sure, Lance can't think of a time when he would _need_ to fly but still. Looking to Keith's wings, Lance can't help but run his fingers along them again.

"I'm sure drinking only a little bit will be enough to make it home," Keith says, doing his best not to get lost in Lance's gentle touches. "We can always come back for another bottle too." It's not like they'll run out of coins any time soon.

Lance finally stops touching Keith's wings with a sigh and gives a slightly nervous smile before opening the bottle and taking a drink. He licks his lips, finding the flavor almost nonexistent. Feeling oddly lighter, Lance looks over to Keith, eyes still uncertain. "What do I do now?"

Keith grabs Lance's hand. "I don't know but hold tight and jump." He bends down, watches as Lance does the same before yelling," Jump!" His smile is almost mischievous as the both of them jump up. Before he reached the peak of his jump, he starts flapping his wings. Due to the potion, Lance is easily dragged higher into the sky.

Lance's heart races as he joins Keith in the sky but soon his anxiety gives way to excitement. He's giddy to the point that he doesn't even realize he's still holding Keith's hand. His smile seems to grow as they ascend into the sky, eventually breaking enough for him to laugh. "This is incredible!" He shouts at last before tightening his grip on Keith's hand and laughing more.

Keith chuckles and tightens his grip too. "Do you want to drop off the food and do some tricks?" The travel home seems a lot slower due to Keith's wings being smaller in this form.

Lance nods and moves closer to Keith as they fly. "I'm probably going to be awful at them since I've...you know...never flown before." He laughs then gasps as he dips down in the sky a bit, having laughed hard enough to cause a slight decent. When he catches his breath, Lance realizes he's all but clung to Keith from fear. "S-sorry." Clearing his throat, Lance blushes as he pulls away then follows Keith toward the cave.

"It's alright." Keith sways his tail as they enter the cave. "Put the food by the treasure pile and then I'll show you how to fly on your own. Does it feel like the potion is wearing off yet?"

Lance does as Keith says then jumps a little and shakes his head. "Not...not that I can tell?" He bites his lower lip, clearly nervous about trying to fly alone, but also excited about it. "Don't go too far though ok?"

"Okay." Keith nuzzles Lance's cheek before leading Lance back outside. "I'm not sure how that potions works but try to go higher." He flies to the level he wants Lance to match. It's about two feet off the ground.

Lance looks around and tries to fly up to Keith. It's an odd feeling but he can't do any better but to feel like he's walking on air. Uneasy as he might be, Lance makes his way to Keith and smiles brilliantly when they are face to face. "I never imagined I would end up flying, let alone on my own."

Keith chuckles," You're going to say that about a lot of things." He then takes Lance's hand and twirls him around. "What does it feel like for you?" He is far too used to flying to be able to describe it properly and Lance is probably flying differently since he is still moving his feet.

"It...feels like..." Lance smiles when Keith spins him around a bit and laughs at the feeling of his hair tickling his ears. "Like...the air is spinning around me and I'm walking on it." He shakes his head. "That's such a bad description." With a shrug, Lance tries to aim higher, finding being in the air way more enjoyable than he could have imagined. "And you say I'm going to say that about a lot of things," His voice is giddy as the clouds get closer, "I guess that means you plan on keeping me around for a while?"

"That's alright." Keith follows Lance, just in case the potion wears off or if Lance gets startled. "Your flying similarly to wingless dragons." At Lance's question, he frowns slightly. Had he misunderstood something? "Do you not plan to stay?"

"I'd love to stay!" Lance doesn't see Keith's frown for being too lost in flying. He laughs a bit then swoops down to Keith, misinterpreting the amount of space between them, Lance basically slams into Keith. Throwing himself off, Lance grips Keith as he feels like he's falling and feels his face turn red when he looks up to him.

Keith tightly wraps his arms as they fall a bit. He flaps his wings faster to steady himself. They aren't far from where Keith originally was and they are not too far off the ground. "Are you alright?" He asks, not minding Lance's redness. He understands that Lance would be feeling embarrassed.

Lance's heart races both from Keith wrapping his arms around him and the quick decent. When he hears Keith's question, Lance looks into his eyes and nods before giving a little smile. "Got too confident." He chuckles bashfully. Not pulling away yet, Lance decides to use being nervous as the excuse. After all, he was still a bit worried about it now. "Flying is tricky I guess huh?"

"Yeah," Keith chuckles then nuzzles into Lance's hair. It's nice to fly with Lance in this form because it's not muffled by his scales and he gets to actually hold Lance. "Do you want to try again or are you done?"

Lance's heart races more when Keith nuzzles into his hair. He can't get his words to form. This can't be right. Why is he so damn flustered. Keith is a dragon! After taking a few breaths, Lance looks up at Keith and clears his throat. "Let's try again." His cheeks flare pink when he meets Keith's eyes. Shit, is this really happening? Is he falling for a dragon? That can't be good.

Keith smiles and slowly lets Lance go. His arms are tense, ready to catch Lance at a seconds notice. He clearly has no issue being super close to Lance since he doesn't understand that friends aren't usually like that.

Lance steadies his breath and takes off into the sky. He knows he isn't faster than Keith, but he wants to try to be away for a minute. His chest is pounding and his head is spinning when he looks back to the dragon. Seeing Keith's smile, Lance grabs at his chest again and bites his lower lip. Maybe...maybe it is just nerves? "Do we have any idea how long this will last?" Lance calls as he tries to fly faster.

"I don't know. The lady didn't give us an exact time for the whole potion but I don't think it'll suddenly stop. Usually humans are able to feel when it's starting to wear off." Keith keeps his distance from Lance but makes sure that he's always in the direction Lance would be if he starts falling.

Lance all but forgets his nerves as he spins around in the air. He looks back to Keith and waves for him to join him. "Let's dance on air!" His voice is light and singy as he grabs Keith's hands and spins around in much the way he would if he were around a fire. Smile brilliant as he spins himself around, Lance laughs then slides in to hug Keith again. "Thank you for this!"

Keith isn't really given time to answer before Lance spins him. This must be how humans dance since it's very different. He smiles as he tries to copy Lance. "You thank me too much," he teases as he wraps his arms around Lance. "I didn't technically do anything but point out the store."

"Fine! Then nevermind!" Lance sticks out his tongue playfully. "I mean...it wasn't you that gave me the money and didn't chase me away or anything, _nooo_ totally wasn't you." He continues dancing then moves Keith's hips to better follow him by putting both hands there. As he wasn't looking at this as a sensual thing, Lance doesn't blush. When he looks back up, Lance nods and smiles. "More like that."

It's Keith's turn to blush and shimmer. He doesn't say anything against it though. "B-but it's not like I'm _supposed_ to chase you away. You didn't know it was my chest and was just hiding."

When Keith shimmers, Lance watches in awe again. "That is so pretty. Can you just _do_ that?" He then shakes his head and points to him. "Everyone chases away thieves like me." Lance laughs and shrugs. "Hiding or not, keeping me around gives me the chance to steal your gold right?" He waves his hands nervously. "Not-not that I plan to!" He keeps dancing with Keith and smiles. Thinking to himself, _I don't plan to have you want me gone for a long time._

Thinking that Lance forgot about the question he just asked, Keith nuzzles him again. "Don't worry. I know you don't plan to and you just walking away now would be stealing my treasure." He looked into Lance's eyes and gets lost again. _My treasure._

Lance feels his chest damn near explode when Keith speaks. He gets so flustered that he starts to fall. Frantically, he grabs for Keith and finds himself even more breathless. He looks into Keith's eyes, totally speechless for longer than he'd like to admit. Once he can untangle his vocal chords, Lance takes a shaky breath and licks his lips. "That-that is...I won't leave." Is all he manages to say.

Keith's eyes widen when Lance starts to fall and he immediately grabs onto Lance and holds him close. He takes a few deep breaths to calm him rapid heart beat. "Good," he says softly as he hugs Lance tightened and nuzzles into his hair. "All done now?"

Lance nods and his throat tightens back up when Keith nuzzles into his hair. Once his feet are on the ground again, Lance realizes he's pretty shaky so he doesn't dare pull away from Keith yet. However, he finds it hard to face him without his heart going crazy again. "Do-" _Are you really going to ask this Lance?_ "Do dragons fall in love?"

Keith raises an eyebrow at the random question. "Yes. It's not as common as humans since we only get one or two in our entire lives." He has seen a magic one with someone else each time Lotor calls for a big meeting. "Dragons have mating earrings that are very similar to contract ones."

"One or two?" Lance doesn't understand what that means. He looks into Keith's eyes and his throat tightens again. "How...do you know if it's one of them?" His face looks down and turns red again.

"I..." Keith trails off and tilts his head. "I don't know. Other dragons say it takes a long time to realize and others say it's almost instant. They all say it's instincts though." He then tilts his head to try to look at Lance's down casted face. "Is something the matter?"

Lance shakes his head frantically. He should have known better than to get his hopes up. Keith is his friend and he should be thankful for that. When he looks up, Lance doesn't mean for his smile to look sad, but it does. "I was...just curious I guess." He shrugs then scratches behind his neck. "Is there somewhere I can get clean?" Hoping to change the topic away, Lance looks around toward the area, as though looking for a hot spring or lake.

Keith slightly frowns. _Why is Lance sad? Did he not like my answer?_ He nuzzles Lance again. "We can go to a waterfall and I can heat up the water."

Lance looks to Keith with a lopsided smile and nods. He hasn't thought far enough ahead to the whole "bathing" aspect. "Warm water is always nice." Looking around, he waits for Keith to lead the way.

"Do you want to fly there or is the potion done?" Keith's tiny pout still hasn't disappeared and he hasn't fully released Lance either.

Lance swallows and smiles. "I can still fly, so long as it isn't far. It doesn't feel as strong as it did." He fiddles with a patch of Keith's scales, not even realizing he's doing it. When he looks up, Lance's heart jumps fast and he clears his throat to try to slow it back down. Not able to stay so close without his heart slamming hard against his ribcage, Lance steps back and jumps into the air. "Well, lead the way." He tries hard to smile like normal.

Keith forces a small smile before leading the way. It really isn't that far away, just down his small mountain and the opposite direction from the nearest town. The waterfall is just tall enough for Keith in dragon form to take a shower. "How do humans get clean?"

Lance sees the waterfall and almost sighs in relief. He can't wait to wash off the dirt and awkward feeling of falling for a dragon who clearly doesn't feel the same way. When Keith asks the question, Lance blushes again. "We...clean our skin. Typically with soap or something. I have a little thing in my pouch here." He steps to the edge of the water and takes off his top and some of his jewelry before looking over to Keith. "How do you warm the water?"

"I sit in it," Keith gives the super short answer before transforming into his dragon form. He flies up and sits in the water, a little bit before the edge where the waterfall starts. He leans his head over the edge and looks down at Lance.

Lance exhales heavily when Keith flies up to the top of the waterfall. Still a bit nervous, Lance strips quick and slides into the water. It seems odd to be in water like this and feel it be warm. For a few minutes, he gets lost in the feeling before looking way up to wave at Keith. Then, he slips under the waterfall and does his best to let it wash away any feelings he was getting. Keith is a dragon and clearly above him. He shouldn't have even mentioned it.

Once Keith knows that the water will stay warm without him for a while, he shifts again. He's curious about how humans clean themselves and he can't really see how Lance is doing it from up here. He stands up and shakes as much water as he can off before flying down. He lands several feet in front of Lance and tilts his head. Dragons don't use what Lance called soap to clean themselves and certainly never make bubbles come out of them.

Lance doesn't realize Keith is near him. He is thankful for finally being clean and takes a deep breath of the bubbles before turning to put the soap on a nearby stone. When he opens his eyes, Keith is _right there_ and Lance turns brilliant red before darting back under the water as if it hides him.

Lance's reaction makes Keith tilt his head even more. He looks around to see if Lance saw something he did not sense but there is nothing. "What's wrong? Did the shadows move?" He starts to walk closer, wanting to comfort Lance.

Lance hears Keith and can't find his voice. He slinks down into the water before pushing himself out from under the waterfall. When he looks up to Keith, his face turns red again. _Gods he looks even more attractive in the water_ Finally, he shakes his head and chokes out, "No. It's ok." But his voice is a choked version of what it usually is.

"What's wrong? Maybe the water temperature is wrong." Keith sticks his hand under the waterfall and scrunches his eyebrows together. It seems fine to him. He's starting to get a bit frustrated, something is bothering Lance and he doesn't know what it is.

Lance just covers his face and shakes his head. "The water is fine." He chokes out then peaks through his fingers to Keith. When he sees the look of frustration, Lance feels guilty. "I'm sorry. I'll get over it, just give me a bit ok?" Assuming Keith knows he likes him, Lance addresses the issue likely way too vaguely.

Keith visibly gets even more frustrated and he even breathes out a little bit of fire. "Did something scare you? Did you just imagine something in the shadows? Maybe something bit you?" He just wants to help make Lance comfortable and isn't getting any help.

Lance jumps when Keith breathes fire and watches him with wide eyes for a second before nervously fidgeting with his fingers. "No I'm not - nothing scared me." He starts and can see Keith growing more frustrated. "I like you, ok?!" Blurting the words makes Lance even more red and then he rambles even more. "And you said dragons only get one or two and so I just...I'll get over it ok? But you look _really_ good in the water and I didn't expect you to be close and I just - I can't breathe ok?" He laughs then slides the rest of the way under the water and screams into it, causing bubbles to go all over.

Keith is confused by the sudden surge of happiness flowing through him. "I said one or two because dragons mate for life. It's rare for a dragon to have a second mate but it's not unthinkable," he explains as he takes several steps back to give Lance space. "But if you can't breath with me close, why would you want to be my mate? It would kill you."

Lance feels all of him turn red at Keith's words so he only comes up from the water enough to talk. "I can't breathe because I'm - I'm nervous. I didn't think you...you didn't seem, I don't know...interested?" He swallows hard and covers his face again. "Trust me, I like you close." The last line is muffled behind his hands but likely still audible for a dragon.

"But then you'll get nervous and can't breath." Keith squats down where he is and splashes the water with his tail. "You didn't seem interested in me either. You didn't do any courting." He sways his tail, head now in both hands.

Lance's eyes are watering with embarrassment at this point. He's so nervous his words are nearly a jumbled mess. "I won't _stay_ nervous." He says at last with a pout then swallows hard and takes a deep breath. "I don't know anything about courting." Lance watches Keith and finds himself turning red. _Gods he's too much. How can someone be so cute and so damn sexy all at once?_ Thinking this makes him unconsciously sink into the water more.

"But I've seen humans do courting before," Keith pouts. "You give each other pink items and then kiss." His tail is thumping against the water again. Lance's face is still above the water so Keith is worried about Lance possibly drowning yet but he doesn't dare take his eyes off his treasure.

Lance can't help but laugh a bit at that. Despite being horridly nervous, Lance lifts up and shakes his head. "That's not quite it for humans really." He has to think about it a bit but starts to try to make sense of what a human does to court someone. "Giving gifts is usually part of it, but it doesn't have to be pink. Going on dates, and being romantic are part of courting. Some people like to cook special meals or take their hopeful mate to a special place." He meets Keith's eyes and swallows hard, breath speeding up again. "But...it's really different for every human."

"So... You _have_ been courting me. I didn't realize humans could court like dragons." Keith stands up and shakes the water off him. "I didn't know that I could court my treasure." He starts to wonder if his instincts have been for mating rather than keeping treasure or maybe all human treasures were just mates without calling them mates.

Lance's eyes grow wide and he blushes somehow darker. He finds his breaths becoming frantic and his speech becoming even more crazed. "I-I wasn't _trying_ to court you, at least not really. I mean, I don't mind but you're a dragon and I don't know if that's really ok. I-I really was just having fun and being wildly attracted to you. Oh gods, I just said that out loud." Lance cuts himself off by going back under the water again and nervously rambling until he's out of air.

This time Keith actually get worried. He waits a few seconds after the bubbles stop appearing to rush over and pull Lance up. He looks over Lance to make sure he's okay and breathing. He then goes back to talking about mates. "Why wouldn't it be okay?" We wouldn't have similar forms if we aren't allowed to mate." He slowly lets go of Lance, making sure he won't fall under the water's surface again.

Feeling Keith pull him from the water, Lance's heart races again. He takes a deep breath and starts to relax then Keith goes back to talking about mating and Lance just struggles to hide his face. His level of embarrassment is crazy high, he's not sure his face can handle being this red much longer. "Because you're a dragon and you're like...contracted to someone? I don't know what any of that means? I just...I don't know ok?" He slides partway under the water and looks up at Keith nervously. "And you keep saying all this but you aren't actually telling me if you feel the same or not and it's so not helping me at all."

"But you're already my treasure, is that not enough?" Keith honestly doesn't understand his own feelings at the moment. He honestly thought his attraction to Lance was because Lance said he would be his treasure. "And contracts is just so that magic ones have a dragon to rely on. It's hard to ask a dragon for help if they live far away. Plus we get treasure out of it." Keith has no idea that humans would normally call it a job.

Lance looks oddly hurt by Keith's statement even though he tries not to. He grabs his arm and looks down. "I know. I'm asking too much, I just...should I try to ignore it?" Looking up to Keith, Lance bites his lower lip and looks guilty. "I should probably get out of the water though or I'm going to get all gross and wrinkly." Hoping Keith won't notice how sad he seems by Keith not seeming to be interested in him the way he is, Lance starts to move away.

Keith's heart hurts. "I-is being my mate different than being my treasure?" There must be some sort of misunderstanding if Lance is sad. He wants to grab Lance but just follows so that Lance doesn't get gross. How do you even get gross from staying in the water? "You're still mine," he mumbles softly. If Lance becomes his mate, would he need to treat Lance differently than he has been?

Lance wasn't going to respond as he wasn't entirely sure. He can feel Keith following behind and when he mumbles, you're still mine, Lance feels his heart skip more than one beat. Covering his mouth, Lance tries to still his heart but fails so he reaches the edge of the water and sits down. "I...am yours." He repeats quietly then nods. "Yeah." A bashful, sideways smile grows on his face. "Just...treat me however you like. I...I guess if you would treat a mate different...I would enjoy that?" He barely manages to squeak the last bit out.

Keith slides up to Lance and nuzzles his cheek against Lance's. When he pulls away, he makes his lips brush against Lance's cheek. "How will you get dry, my mate?" Saying that outloud makes him extremely happy and twitchy. He has the urge to swim but doesn't want to just suddenly leave Lance's side so he just plays with the water.

Feeling Keith's lips against his cheek stops Lance's heart. He looks over to meet his eyes as he speaks and Lance goes speechless for a second. Heart racing and throat tight, he finally gives a little smile. "I usually just use my shirt." He responds at last as he nervously places his hand against Keith's cheek. As though he's still unsure what Keith would like, Lance swallows hard before quietly asking, "Can-can I kiss you?"

"Sure." Despite the nonchalant look on his face, Keith's tail is wagging and thumping against the water. His cheeks are very slightly red and the shimmer in his scales are mixed with the shine of the water.

Lance feels his breath growing short as he moves in a but cant help to smile a little at Keith's obvious excitement. He swallows hard then finally matches his lips with Keith's. When he kisses him, Lance swears his heart stops and he gets shivers through his whole body.

Keith can feel the heat building up inside him but he doesn't pull away. Lance's lips are soft. His tail slows as he moves closer. Once the heat feels like it's going to leak out, he pulls away and covers his mouth.

Lance's eyes barely open when he feels Keith move away. He peels them open to see Keith covering his mouth and smiles. "At least we are both feeling the same way." He says breathlessly before biting his lower lip and nervously leaning in to kiss along Keith's neck scales as he was curious how it would feel.

A shiver runs down Keith's spine as he struggles to keep his mouth closed. A tiny bit of fire escaped his lips before he manages to regain control over them. The heat inside him is still strong and wanting release. He takes a few steps back into the water before looking up and letting the fire out.

Lance watches Keith and finds himself mesmerized for a minute. He then grabs his shirt and starts to dry off with a pleased smile. His cheeks are pink but seeing Keith react like that makes Lance's smile damn near permanent. Once dry enough, Lance pulls on his pants and sits back down at the edge of the water, feet in and sighs at Keith. "That might be interesting to deal with." Lance says teasingly.

It's Keith's turn to sink into the water. With his tail still at the surface, he almost looks like a winged alligator. He swims around a bit but keeps his eyes on Lance as much as possible. His tail sways slowly behind him.

Lance watches him with a warm smile. He can't deny wanting to hop back into the water. His feet twitch before he finally sighs and jumps in, not even bothering to take off his pants. Swimming up to Keith, Lance playfully tries to catch up to him.

The moment Lance starts heading his way, he swim faster, making his tail wiggle faster. It's not too hard to catch a fire dragon when they are in water. Keith lifts his head to let out a laugh as Lance grabs onto his tail.

Lance gives a hardy laugh as he catches Keith and swims up to be cest to chest with him. "Gotcha." He gives a quiet chuckle while treading water. "I hadn't meant to make you swim away you know."

"But it was fun!" Keith wraps his arms around Lance and lays on his back, Lance now laying on him. He feels Lance's soaked pants against his skin. "Is it okay that you wore this into the water?" He reaches a hand down to tug at the cloth.

Lance smiles and cuddles into Keith's chest. He laughs a bit when he feels Keith tugging at the cloth. "Eh, they needed to be cleaned anyway." Lifting his head to look Keith over, Lance blushes a bit. "Does the texture bother you?"

"No." Keith stops fiddling with the fabric and lays his arm across Lance's back. "Should we buy more next time we go to town?"

Lance smiles and shrugs. "Doesn't matter to me. I've never had much variety in my outfits anyway." He wraps his arms around Keith and runs his fingers along his wings. "You're so warm." He hums happily.

Keith's chest rumbles. "Your natural body heat might start to rise. I heard that someone who mated with a colder dragon dropped their body heat without realizing it."

Lance chuckles and nuzzles into Keith more. "I think I'm ok with that." He blushes and buries his face. "I can't believe this is all real. You are a _dragon!_ " Lance lifts then looks at him with a warm smile. "My dragon?" He asks quietly.

Keith chuckles and smiles shyly. "Your dragon," he answers just as quietly. He lifts his head to press his nose against Lance's. That's how dragons kiss but Lance doesn't need to know that yet.

Lance's smile grows then he giggles when Keith presses his nose to Lance's. Giving him an Eskimo kiss, Lance finds himself staring into Keith's eyes and sighing. "And I'm your sneaky little thief." He laughs then pretends to be worried. "Oh no! Maybe I did steal something!"

Keith raises his eyebrow. "What did you steal?" He thinks that Lance is referring to swiping something earlier today while in town. He knows for a fact that the only thing Lance has of his is the pouch and the gold coins inside.

Lance gives a sly smile. "Your heart...hopefully." He kisses Keith's neck once then lays his head back down, face red. A big part of him can't believe he said that.

A shiver runs down Keith's spine again. He nuzzles into Lance's hair and says," But I still have my heart. It's not something you can steal without injuring me unless you have that type of magic and you haven't told me about it."

Lance sighs and groans. "That's not what I meant." He buries his face again then looks up to Keith. "It means, hopefully you are falling for me. We, hopefully you like me too? Or like, hopefully you don't mind me -" finally not sure what to say he just moves in and kisses Keith deeply, despite his face being bright red.

Keith hums into the kiss and tightens his hold a little. He feels the heat starting to build again. He leans his head back before it can get too much again. "Y-you mean you've stolen my affection." It wasn't a question. His cheeks are red as he looks back at Lance.

Lance nods. "And you've certainly stolen mine." He sighs and lays his head back down with a smile. "Which is only fair since I'm your treasure." With a little laugh, Lance traces some of Keith's scales before yawning a bit. Floating like this is oddly lulling.

"Shall we go back?" Keith asks while combing his hand through Lance's hair. He isn't sure if humans should fall asleep in the water. Lance might get gross and wrinkly... Somehow. Lance doesn't seem old enough to get wrinkly.

Lance just hums in response. "Doesn't matter to me." He finally answers, fingers still tracing Keith's scales. "Though it's probably not a horrible idea." Angling to look up at Keith, Lance smiles then kisses his neck again.

This time Keith's rumble sounds more like a cat's purr and a small tongue of fire escapes his mouth. "How will you dry your clothes?" His own body heat drys his clothes pretty quickly. He starts to float them back to land.

Lance looks down and shrugs. "I hadn't thought about that really." He laughs then feels his face turn red just imagining taking them off again, especially since they'd be close and there would be no water to hide them.

"Are you okay with air drying?" Keith sits up, dragging Lance up with him. "I could make a big fire."

Lance sighs in relief and nods. "I've done that plenty of times." He finally climbs out of the water and grabs the rest of his clothes. "Are we walking back?"

"We can get dry first," Keith says as he climbs out. "Do you want to walk back?" He looks up to where his cave is. Most humans wouldn't want to walk there.

Lance shakes himself off and wrongs out his clothes as best he can. "I don't mind walking." He admits once he looks up. "I walk all the time anyway." He looks Keith over again, face turning red as he finds him more and more attractive every time he looks at him. without realizing he's even doing it, Lance bites his lower lip and swallows hard before clearing his throat and looking around as if he remembers the way to the cave. "So, uh, this way right?"

Keith chuckles. "Close." He gets closer to nudge Lance in the proper direction. "This way." He then nuzzles into Lance's hair. "Are you not cold?" He doesn't hug Lance since his own clothes are still completely soaked and dripping.

Lance looks over to Keith, face still red and nods before laughing a bit. "Still learning where home is, my bad." He smiles brighter when Keith nuzzles into him. "I'm a little cold, but walking helps. I...kinda got used to being cold." He shrugs and smiles again before nuzzling his head against Keith's shoulder.

Keith looks down at Lance's legs and breathes a little bit of fire. The fire doesn't touch Lance at all but what does is really warm smoke.

Lance isn't expecting it so he jumps a bit and, hilariously, tries to jump over it before realizing what Keith is doing. Laughing as he walks, Lance shakes his head. "Thanks for that." He chokes through his laughter. "But warn me next time."

Keith chuckles," Sorry." His tail sways happily behind him as he nuzzles Lance. "Your reaction was really cute." Playfully he blows more smoke at Lance.

Lance playfully pouts and crosses his arms. "I thought I was gonna get burnt or something." Laughing more he shrugs. "Not sure why jumping was my reaction though." He brushes his hand against Keith's and smiles at him. "That's nice...thanks."

Keith holds Lance's hand with a big smile. "You're welcome." He starts to swings their interlocked arms. "An appropriate time to thank me," he teases.

Lance just blushes and bows his head with a smile. "You're..." He starts then clears his throat. "You're my miracle." He mutters bashfully then tightens his grip on Keith's hand and looks to him with nervous eyes.

Keith's scales look like they are on fire and his smile is the widest yet. Keith pulls Lance close and continuously boops his nose against Lance's.

Lance giggles at Keith's boops and runs his hand through Keith's hair. "That's really cute." He says before wrapping his arms around Keith and looking into his eyes. "Does it mean something special or do you just like doing it?"

Keith boops Lance again. "Dragon lips aren't exactly the easiest to kiss," he says with a slight teasing tone.

Lance grins and leans in to kiss Keith. When he pulls away, Lance is smirking. "Easy enough for me." He then playfully waves a hand. "I know, not what you meant." Laughing, Lance boops Keith's nose too. "It's cute. I like it."

Keith's tail wags and he nuzzles into the crook of Lance's neck. "If I'm able to have a human form, without my tail and wings, would you prefer that?"

Lance thinks about it and shrugs. "I'm not sure." Blushing as he speaks, Lance runs his fingers over Keith's wings. "I like this form so it's...hard to say I'd want it to change."

Keith open his wings a little to let Lance touch more of it. "I'm not sure what causes the dragons to gain their human form but it's always when they have two earrings."

Lance smiles when Keith opens his wings. He trails his hands down more of them then along his hips and over his tail. Then he looks up and touches Keith's new piercing. "Hm. Either way is fine with me." He hums before running his hand down Keith's arm and nestling his hand into Krith's again.

Keith leans his head to nuzzle Lance. "Since we didn't get to do proper courting before, expect a lot of it," he says softly as he gazes at Lance. Dark blue might be his new favorite color.

Lance blushes more and nods. He cuddles into Keith, appreciating his warmth. "I've never been courted." He laughs. "Especially not by a dragon. So expect to see me flustered a lot." Cuddling into him as they walk together, Lance can't help but smile. When he looks up, Lance stops and admires the sky. It is sunset and the mix odd colors along with the sparkling stars only makes the moment more surreal.

Keith stays silent, basking in Lance's presence. He looks up and wonders if Shiro can see him. Slowly, he lays his head on Lance's.

Lance looks over to Keith and smiles. "Sorry, the sky is way prettier outside the city." He nuzzles against Keith then smiles before playfully pushing him to the ground and cuddling into him.

Keith's wings snap open as he falls. He chuckles as he cuddles back, arms wrapped around Lance. "I like the night sky the most."

"Me too." Lance whispers quietly. "Something about it feels so magical." He laughs at his choice of words then sighs as he buries his face in Keith's neck. "Mmm." He hums as he nuzzles, "I'm going to be so spoiled sleeping next to you. It's like having a super pretty heating blanket to cuddle with." He laughs a bit then sighs happily.

"A super what?" Keith chuckles. He starts to comb his hand through Lance's hair. He presses his nose against the top of Lance's head. _My human. My treasure._ Happy shivers run through his body. _My mate._

"Heating blanket." Lance repeats tiredly. He has a cute, sleepy smile in his face, loving the feeling of Keith's nails in his hair. "I'm bad at compliments." Admitting this brings a little laugh from his chest. "What's important is I'm happy. And you are going to spoil me whether you mean to or not."

Keith hums. Despite Lance feeling cold to him, it's a pleasant pressure. "Shall I carry you home?" He whispers after a moment of silence. Lance's breathing is pretty even but he can't tell for sure if he has fallen asleep.

Keith's voice wakes Lance back up and he tiredly shakes his head. "No no, I can walk." He struggles to get to his feet, obviously tired despite saying he can make it. "Then we can cuddle up and go to sleep."

"You look like you'll fall asleep standing," Keith teases. He gently picks up Lance bridal style. "I'll fly us back home. You rest." He nuzzles Lance as he spreads his wings.

Lance pouts and pretends to struggle out of Keith's graso but instead just wraps his arms around Keith's neck and nods into his chest. "You're so comfy." He hums sleepily. When they start moving, his grip tightens a bit but then the motion lulls him to sleep within a minute.

Keith flies as steady as he can. He also lands as softly as he can. Since he didn't want to wake Lance up, he doesn't transform. He carefully sits down then lays down. To keep Lance even more warm, he wraps his wings around the both of them.

Lance cuddles into Keith's warmth and grins in his sleep. Once they are not moving, Lance brings his thumb to his mouth and gnaws on his nail in his sleep.

Keith gently pulls Lance's arm down and combs through his hair again. Sleeping in this form is slightly uncomfortable but it doesn't stop his eyes from growing heavy.


	4. Chapter 4

Lance stays comfortably clinging to Keith throughout the night. Only when morning comes does anything make a sound, and it's Matt coming in the cave entrance, already talking. "Now, you know, if you always stay here you'll never get to see early morning Shiro grump." Keith shushes and glares at Matt.

From outside comes a loud thump and a black dragon's head peaks into the cave. Keith sighs and opens up his wings, revealing a sleeping human.

Matt runs over and covers Shiro's mouth ad though he were the one talking. He awes as Lance whines a little and cuddles into Keith more. "When did this happen?" Matt asks quietly before elbowing Shiro and raising an eyebrow. "Told you something was different."

Shiro huffs and nudges Matt back towards Keith. The two watch as Keith combs his hands through Lance's hair and nuzzle the top of the human's head. "Stop talking," he says softly, hoping he doesn't wake up Lance.

Lance nuzzles into the feeling of Keith's hands in his hair and smiles in his sleep. Matt carefully walks over to look at him and raises an eyebrow upon noticing the earrings. Saying nothing, he grins deviously then points to the earrings then to he and Shiro. He then looks at Shiro and smirks.

Keith rolls his eyes. He can already tell that Matt plans to tease him until the end of time. He then looks to Shiro who is giving Matt a tired smile. Shiro is not a morning person but at least he's trying. He lets out a big yawn before shaking his head and transforming into his human form. A few scale patches and his horns are still visible.

Lance jumps awake at the sound of Shiro's yawn. Much like he had done the previous morning, he jolts awake and jumps up ready to run. He looks to Matt then Shiro the Keith and slinks back to Keith's side. "Good...morning?" He greets uncertainly.

Matt cant hold back the laugh at how Lance wakes up. He nods to him and motions to himself. "I'm Matt."

Keith nuzzles Lance in order to calm him. "You can trust them," he whispers.

"Keith," Shiro whines. He wants to hurry up and go back home. He leans against Matt while grumbling about being tired.

Lance leans up and nuzzles Keith before looking back to the two strangers. He then realizes one is a dragon who looks hurt. Hurrying over to him, Lance grabs Shiro's arm and looks up to him with worried eyes. "Are you ok?"

Shiro is taken aback by the sudden lack of nervousness coming from the human. Almost no one rushes up to an unknown dragon. "I'm okay," he says once the shock wears off. "It's an old injury." Keith rolls his eyes at that and walks up behind Lance.

"Old?" Lance runs his hand along the edge of it and give Shiro _the look_. "That can't be more than a week old. Did you put anything on it? Herbs would help." He realizes, rather abruptly, what he's doing and bows his head before mumbling and apology. "That was rude. I'm sorry."

Shiro chuckles. "It's alright, I don't mind."

"Yeah. He needs someone to worry over him otherwise he'll get away with calling anything that takes longer than two days, an old injury," Keith teases as he wraps his arms around Lance. "And Matt doesn't seem to be doing a good job at managing him."

"He's got a good eye though." Matt admits with a nod before shooting a look to Keith. "Oh you know damn well that I can't control him." He walks over to Shiro and slips under his arm. "But I do try."

Lance bows then smiles up to Shiro. "So I take it you guys are friends?" He looks back and forth to Keith and Shiro before cuddling into Keith and kissing the scales of his neck.

Keith melts, which causes Matt and Shiro to chuckle. "I practically raised him," Shiro answers.

"You did not! You just taught me how to do things because you thought I wouldn't be able to on my own," Keith huffs as he buries his face in Lance's hair.

Lance smiles at the exchange and nods. "That's called raising someone." Lance teases Keith quietly. He looks over to Shiro again and nods. "My name is Lance. Did I say that already? I don't know." He holds out his hand and smiles brilliantly.

Matt intercepts Lance's hand. "Loooove what you guys did with the ears." He smirks. "How long ago did that happen?"

Keith pouts when Lance sides with Shiro. He didn't learn everything from Shiro. "Yesterday," He answers with a blush. "It was with the decorative earrings."

"With the decorative..." Matt looks at Shiro and wirelessly begs to be allowed to tell them.

Meanwhile, Lance has started to trace Keith's scales while looking Shiro over with his head tilted. "So, what kind of dragon are you?"

Shiro gives Matt a look that says he shouldn't but I won't stop you. His attention is then shifted to Lance again. He can see that Keith is practically purring. "I'm a space dragon," Shiro answers with a smile. "I can teleport myself and other people and I can survive in outer space."

Lance's eyes sparkle with amazement. "That's so amazing!" He bounces in place a bit. "Can you teleport _anyone_ to space with you or is that only you?" His eyes are still sparkling as he clearly is excited about it.

And at the same time, Matt slides next to them. "So Keith...you say it was decorative?"

Trying to keep his answer small in order to properly hear Matt's conversation, he says," I can teleport anyone with me but that requires more focus."

Keith raises an eyebrow. "Yeah. It was with the ring earrings," he answers with slight hesitation. Matt is acting a bit suspicious.

"That's amazing!" Lance jumps over to him and looks over Shiro's scales. "Is that why your scales look so different?" Shiro nods. He moves in order to show the shine it has.

"There wasn't anything unusual?" Matt smiles and elbows him with an eyebrow raise.

"Noo? They looked really cool." Keith shrugs. "It was originally just for Lance but he said it would look good on me too."

Lance smiles and touches the spot where the wound is and pouts. "Sorry you got hurt." He looks almost guilty.

"Crazy coincidence isn't it Shiro?" Matt is glowing with amusement

Shiro pats Lance's head with his other hand. "It's alright." He then glances at Matt. "Indeed. Especially since it looks really pretty. Usually only contract or mating earrings look that nice."

Matt's smile grows and touches his own earring. "That's kinda what I was thinking." He scoots over to Shiro and slides his arm around his waist. "Pretty unusual at best."

Lance looks from Matt and Shiro over to Keith with nervous eyes. He knows Keith agreed that they could be mates, but is a mating earring a bad thing? "Would having a mating earring cause a problem with the contract one?"

Keith squints his eyes at Shiro and Matt. "No but the contractor should know about it the next time they meet up. Not that it's hard to tell," Shiro answers, causing Keith to groan.

"Don't tell me that we..." Keith trails off as he rests his forehead on Lance's shoulder.

Lance touches his earring then looks over to Keith. "It's ok, right?" He asks quietly. "I didn't mean to cause any trouble." His eyes look to the ground and Lance pouts a little which causes Matt to have to bury his face in Shiro's chest to keep from squealing.

"They're so cute." He whispers. Shiro chuckles and pats his head.

"You didn't do anything wrong," Keith says as he lifts his head to nuzzle Lance's cheek. "It's that... We chose a mating earring before we decided to be mates."

Lance looks up with a warm smile. "Well, maybe before we realized we decided it anyway." He laughs a bit then slides his hand behind Keith's neck, tracing the scales with his fingertips and eyes watching them for a second before nuzzling his nose against Keith's. "Do you think your contractor will mind?" He asks quietly, nose still touching Keith's.

Keith melts and gazes lovingly at Lance. "Most likely not and if he does, he can't do anything about it." He gives Lance a quick kiss on the lips before whispering," My treasure."

Shiro has to cover Matt's mouth to keep him from ruining the moment.

Lance feels his heartbeat quicken and buries his hand in Keith's hair to better lock eyes with him. "Best hiding place I've ever found." He chuckles as he puts his forehead against Keith's and sighs.

Matt is struggling to get out of Shiro's grasp, finally using his magic to get away. "We can _go_ if you'd like." He whispers quietly. "I just wanted to prove that I was right."

Keith gives Lance a goofy smile. His tail is wagging and his scales seem like their on fire. He can feel his heart thumping inside his chest and he loves it.

"You didn't have to prove this early in the morning," Shiro argues, wrapping his arm around Matt. He then freezes and looks down at his arm. It's the injured one or... It _was_ injured. He looks up to Lance and feels bad for being the one to ruin their bonding moment. "Hey, Lance. Did you... Heal me?"

Lance watches Keith's tail and giggles. He presses his still bare chest against Keith's and feels their hearts both racing. When Shiro addresses him, Lance furrows his eyebrows and shakes his head. "What do you mean?"

"I-uhh..." Shiro has no idea what's happening. Lance should know if he used magic. "My arm feels better." He even moves it around to show.

Lance smiles "Well that's good!" He _really_ doesn't think he's done anything but if he had a tail, it would be wagging for sure. "But...I really didn't do anything." Pouting a bit, Lance grabs his own arm, as if silently wishing he could. "I don't...have magic."

"Oh... Uhh... Well, you still worried about me," Shiro smiles," So thank you. We'll visit some other time, in the afternoon." The last part was directed at Matt with a glare.

Matt sticks his tongue out. "Not my fault you aren't a morning dragon." He bumps Shiro's hip with his as he follows him out. "Did he heal you?" His curiosity gets the best of him once they are outside.

"He must have. It's completely fine now. I was even able to keep you quiet with it." Shiro is inspecting his own arm still, trying to figure out if there is any other way for it to heal suddenly.

"Do you think he just...doesn't realize he has magic?" Matt grabs Shiro's arm and can see that it is certainly better than it had been just a bit ago. "Wow. Good magic too."

"But how would he not have realized?" Shiro wonders and then remembers something. "Both of their ears are healed and they just got the piercing yesterday. I'm sure the shop owner told them to clean so they must have noticed that."

"Maybe he's never been taught _how_ to use it?" Matt shrugs. "I mean, most of us kinda just...figure it out." He nods. "I did notice that about their ears too though." Putting a hand on his hip, Matt shakes his head. "How do you show someone they have magic?"

"For healing magic, I'm not sure. Unless the wound is big and very visible, I don't think he'll believe he is the one doing it." Shiro grabs Matt's arm and pulls him into his chest. Matt's galaxy star earrings hit his chest from the sudden change in motion. "Let me teleport us home so I can go back to sleep sooner."

Matt laughs. "Yeah, yeah, go ahead." He hugs Shiro close. Shiro smiles and nuzzles Matt before teleporting them home.

Back in the cave, Lance hugs Keith tight once they are alone and nuzzles into his chest. "Good morning Keith." He sings then looks up. "Sleeping wrapped up in you was amazing."

"It's a little late to be saying good morning," Keith chuckles. "You've been awake for a while." He combs his hand through Lance's hair again. "How'd you know you were wrapped up? You fell asleep on the way here," he teases and boops his nose against Lance's.

"I was warm and..." Lance blushes a bit. "I listened to your heart to fall asleep and woke up the same way." He smiles again when Keith boops his nose. "Plus as soon as you moved I got cold." Laughing a bit, Lance looks to his clothes and sighs. "I guess I could put my shirt on. It might help."

Keith wraps his wings around the both of them. "Are you sure you don't want more? We can look for the fluffy ones," he suggests, remembering that Lotor wears it when they go to cold places.

"Fluffy sounds funny." Lance laughs, having never owned "fluffy clothes." He cuddles into Keith's warmth. "Maybe I should just stay close to you." His voice is quieter now. "I like that better anyway."

Keith buries his face into Lance's hair. "I like that better too." He'll just secretly buy one next time they are in town or he just won't give Lance a choice. He doesn't want Lance to get cold when Lotot calls for him.

Lance smiles brilliantly. "So, what are we doing today?" He asks when he finally looks up to meet Keith's eyes. As he stares into Keith's eyes, he trails his fingers up and down Keith's scales.

Keith shivers. "You really like to touch my scales," he mumbled. "What do you want to do? We have food here."

"I like your scales. They are pretty." Lance says while watching his fingers run along them. "Well, I want to eat. Other than that...I'm not too concerned. I don't get to relax all that often." Fingers still trailing, slowly over Keith's scales, and eyes trailing behind them, Lance speaks quietly. "I just want to spend time with you."

"We can stay inside all day if you want." Keith nuzzles Lance again. "Do you crave anything?" He asks as he unwraps his wings.

Lance smiles, if it keeps up his cheeks will surely start to hurt. He shivers once the colder air reaches his skin again so he finally grabs his shirt and puts it on while thinking. "Hm I'm not really picky when it comes to food." He admits before playfully scooting back into Keith. "But fruit is usually good this early right?"

"Yeah." Keith doesn't separate what to eat at what time so he assumes it's a human thing. He walks with Lance to the basket and helps take out to food.

Lance grabs an apple and starts to eat it while grabbing other little fruits and cupping them in one hand before looking up at Keith and offering him some of what he'd grabbed while keeping the apple in his mouth to free up a hand.

Keith eats out of Lance's hand. His lips and tongue brush against Lance's palm. Once done, he lifts his head back up and licks his lips. He sees Lance holding the apple in his mouth so he grabs one to do the same.

Lance shivers at the feeling of Keith's tongue on his palm. It's an odd sensation but not a bad one. Though he finds it making him want to feel that other places... Shaking his head to pull it out of the gutter, Lance takes a bite of the apple and smiles as Keith mocks him. "You know, this is the most relaxed I've been in years. Ironic it ended up being with a dragon. Even more ironic I ended up _with_ said dragon." He takes another bite and cuddles up close to Keith. "Thanks again for everything."

Keith's tail thumps against the floor happily before wagging. He tried to say your welcome but since he hasn't taken a bite yet, the apple muffles his words. He pulls Lance onto his lap and rubs his cheek against Lance's.

Lance laughs when he hears Keith try to speak then blushes a bit when he's pulled onto Keith's lap. He turns to kiss Keith's cheek then rests his head back against his shoulder. "And it's not all some fever dream right?" Lance half teases before leaning in and gently kissing along Keith's neck scales.

With his mouth still open, he lets out a small whine. Using one arm, he holds the apple as he finally eats a chunk of it. "You're too cold to have a fever." Apple juice had already dripped down to his chin.

Lance chuckles and sits up to lick the juice away before turning beet red upon realizing what he did. He swallows hard, trying to calm his racing heart. And holds his chest as if that would help calm it.

Keith blushes too. He wraps his tail around Lance, scales shimmering. He presses his nose against the side of Lance's head before eating the rest of his apple.

"That was weird, right?" Lance laughs nervously. He tries to cover how red he is by finishing off his apple. "I don't know why I did that." He mumbles between bites, face still red. "I think I like you too much." He laughs teasingly then adds, "you make my brain turn to mush."

"That's a good thing, right?" Keith asks as he presses his cheek against Lance's. He wiggles his tail on Lance's lap.

Lance nods and blushes a bit. "Very good thing." He agrees then pets Keith's tail with both hands. His fingers trace the shape of the scales, still fascinated with them as he works his way to the tip of Keith's tail. "I just hope you don't mind my occasional lack of logic." His voice is quiet as he seems to be trying to memorize the pattern of Keith's tail.

"I don't mind." Keith rests his head on Lance's shoulder. He smiles at the memory of Lance confessing to him. It's funny that they ended up getting mating earrings and _then_ decide that they will be mates. He chuckles softly to himself.

Lance continues running his fingers along Keith's tail as he looks over to Keith and smiles. He sighs a bit, just so happy that he doesn't know what to do. Despite innocently cuddling, Lance finds his mind trailing off to dark corners and it makes him blush. Only when Keith chuckles does he snap out of it somewhat. "What's so funny?"

Keith lifts his head to nuzzles Lance's earring. "We were very opposite in being officially mated." Actually, they aren't done but he isn't going to rush Lance. "Oh, when did yours heal?" He asks once he notices that the hole is fully healed.

"What do you mean we're opposite?" Lance asks then touches his ear and shrugs. "I've always healed from stuff pretty quick." He reaches over and smiles. "But yours is healed too." He leans in and kisses Keith's jawline just below his ear.

Keith purrs a little. "Odd, maybe your quick healing is contagious." Something in his gut tells him he's wrong about that. "And by opposite, usually mates confess before getting the earrings. Not that I mind how we got ours, it's perfect."

"Maybe." Lance kisses more of Keith's jaw, causing him to turn toward him a bit more. Try as he might, Lance is struggling to keep his mind innocent right now. "Eh, we didn't exactly meet under usual circumstances either." He speaks quietly, hand trailing up Keith's tail toward his hip. "So it fits, right?"

The blush creeps back onto Keith's face. Lance's light touch leaves tingles. "Yeah." His heartbeat quickens and the heat in him slowly starts to build up.

Lance continues to be gentle as he basically straddles Keith to better trail kisses and run his hands up Keith's hips. "You are so pretty." Lance laughs softly again as he watches Keith blush and his scales shimmer. With his chest against Keith's Lance stops tracing his scales with kisses to meet Keith's eyes. "My mate." He sings quietly.

Keith's blush darkens. "My mate," he whispers before kissing Lance. He wraps his arms around Lance's waist and pulls him as close as possible. Now he really understands what Lance means by his brain turning into mush.

Lance eagerly kisses back and runs his hands up Keith's back before scratching at the area between Keith's wings. When he pulls away from the kiss, he's a bit breathless. "All yours." He smiles before wrapping his legs around Keith. With one hand, Lance runs his fingers along Keith's tail, helping to wrap it around him a bit. He kisses up Keith's jaw and up to their earring before whispering, "Yours however you want me."

Keith shivers and starts to kiss Lance's neck. "It looks like you want something," he says between kisses," You have to tell me otherwise I won't know." He licks the soft are underneath Lance's jawline.

Lance's breath catches at the attention to his neck. "There's only one thing I really want." When he speaks, his voice is a low groan. To try to counterbalance it, Lance kisses along Keith's neck and drags his nails somewhat gently along Keith's back. Sitting up to press his lips against Keith's ear, he whispers, "it's you. In case you hadn't gathered that."

Keith lets out a quiet moan at the scratch. "Then have me," he whispers huskily into Lance's ear. "I'm all yours." He gently bites Lance's ear, making sure not to draw blood.

Lance gasps at the bite, enjoying it more than he expected to. He tightens his grip on Keith then starts to unwrap himself, eager to please himself and Keith, despite being...lacking in knowledge how.

"Hope it's not too early for company." Lotor says as he appears in the cave entrance. Not yet looking up from his bag of things he'd been sorting through, he keeps talking. "Happened to be in the area and wanted to make sure you didn't need-" he stops when he finally looks up. "My apologies. Seems you are a bit preoccupied."

Lance lets out a frustrated sigh the minute he hears Lotor and collapses backwards. Muttering, more to himself than anything, Lance talks with his hands. "Every time. Every freaking time. Why? What did I do?"

Keith lightly glares at Lotor before looking at Lance with confusion. He understands that humans can do it with other people before deciding their official mate but how many times has Lance tried in order to say every time?

"As previously stated, I'm _sorry_ for interrupting. Didn't know you had company." Lotor raises an eyebrow and grins at Lance's reaction before noticing the earrings. "Are you two mated?" He questions suddenly. "I haven't even been gone _that_ long."

"Why is everyone so shocked that I'm mated?!" Keith asks as he thumps his tail against the floor. He pouts and folds his arms over his chest.

"Everyone?" Lotor asks with a raised eyebrow. He motions for Keith to come to him and steps outside. Lance sighs and pulls himself away from Keith, knowing his contractor must need him for something. He sits against the cave wall, suddenly aware how chilly it is.

Once Keith has joined him, Lotor looks at him seriously. "For clarity, I'm not shocked that you're mated. Only that it went under the radar." He walks a bit further away before continuing to speak. "Does your mate know the type of dragon you are?"

Keith unfolds his arms and relaxes. He wonders how Matt could sense something but Lotor didn't, or maybe he did and isn't admitting it. Lotor doesn't come around here very often. "Yeah, he knows."

Lotor nods. "I worried about that." He sighs and looks at Keith seriously. "Please be careful. You and I both know the stone," he touches the top of Keith's chest, "is quite the commodity. I don't want to see you hurt." Gently, he places his hand on Keith's shoulder. "It's unusually to see you bond so quickly. Even more so for a human to bond so easily with a dragon you know."

Keith sways his tail in irritation. "Our bond is genuine. He didn't know dragon existed before meeting me so there is no way he'll know about the stone." He places his hand on top of Lotor's hoping that it's enough to quench his worries.

Lotor nods but is clearly still worried. "You found mating earrings, I don't doubt the bond is real. Trust me, I'm happy to see you happy," Lotor looks down then back to the cave entrance. "But," he sighs, "he dresses himself as a thief. As one who has yet to be caught, it's not impossible to believe he has illusion magic and is doing his best to win you before taking it."

Keith sighs. "He is a thief but he doesn't have any magic." He then remembers Shiro and their earrings. "Actually... If he has any, it would be healing," he mumbles before gripping Lotor's hand tighter. "Don't ask him, he'll get sad." Keith narrows his eyes at Lotor. He has already seen Lance be sad about it several times already and would rather avoid seeing it again. "And you know I'll be able to track my treasure no matter what tricks anyone pulls."

"He _is_ magic. I can sense that much." With a shrug, Lotor can't hide his confusion as to why someone would say they dont have magic when they obviously do. "Might I ask how you even met?" Lotor takes his hand back and gives Keith a smile. "Again, I am more surprised by all of this. It won't cause issues with work, yes?"

"It won't." Keith cracks his neck. "I already told him about the contract." He then cracks his knuckles. "He was hidden in the chest for last time. He said he was hiding from guards. They were chasing him for this," he says and points to the scarf still tied around his waist. The knot is starting to come loose but it's not enough to worry about yet.

Lotor can't help but laugh imagining Keith opening a chest to find a human. "I wish I'd been there!" He says through his laughter. "At least there will be no doubts you will have him wrapped around your finger then." Lotor looks the scarf over, running it through his fingers. "He has good taste at least." Lotor's words sound almost loaded. "Well, as long as you are careful, I approve. I'll leave you be."

Keith sticks out his tongue childishly. _Not like you have a choice._ He then turns serious. "Anything coming up soon? Or are you still searching for them?"

"Still searching. They've done well to hide this long." He nods. "Do be careful of them as well. While not likely they would target you, I don't like the possibility." After a quick bow, Lotor smiles. "Go return to your mate. I have work to attend to." And then, without hesitation, he is gone as quickly as he arrived.

Keith stretches his wings. Now that he has Lance, he should really think about setting up traps. He closes his wings and starts walking back into the cave.

Lance is laying on the cave floor, doing his best to ignore the goosebumps covering his body. His legs are crossed and one foot is bobbing. He's throwing and orange up and catching it when he hears Keith. "Do you have to go?" He asks, not realizing how much his voice is shivering.

Keith quickly pulls Lance into a hug. "No, he didn't need me yet." He nuzzles into Lance's hair and wraps his wings around the both of them. "We should really get you fluffy clothes."

Lance nods and cuddles into him. "You might be right." He shivers until Keith is wrapped around him. "But I'm glad you get to stay with me." He hums then kisses Keith's neck and even his lips are cold.

"You're so cold," Keith mumbles sadly and hugs Lance tighter. "Would you like a fire or go outside?" He's worried because he doesn't know how cold humans are able to withstand.

Lance cuddles into Keith and smiles. "I'll just stick by you it isn't that bad." He kisses his neck more and nuzzles into him before nervously asking, "did...you want to pick back up where we left off?"

Keith blushes. "S-sure." He nuzzles into Lance's hair. "How do you want me?" He asks softly.

Lance swallows hard and his breath grows short. "I honestly have no idea." He runs his hands between Keith's wings again. "I don't exactly have practice in this." Kissing Keith's neck before pressing his chest against Keith's Lance groans a little. "I just...know I want you."

Keith's chest rumbles. "Alright." He nuzzles down to Lance's neck and gently nibbles. "You can command me at any point."

Lance's breath grows shorter with each nibble and hearing Keith say he can command him causes his brain to fog with dirty thoughts. Raising a hand up to Keith's cheek, Lance looks into his eyes before kissing him and arcing his chest up. His other hand lightly scratches at Keith's shoulder. Already, Lance is worked up enough for it to be noticeable.

Keith hums and trails his hands down tp Lance's waist. He grips as tight as he can without digging his nails into Lance. Feeling a odd bulge against his crotch, he grinds against it.

Lance gasps and his jaw drops a little when Keith starts to grind into him. He drops his head back a bit to breathe before looking back to Keith and pressing his lips against his hungrily. His hands travel along him, as though trying to memorize him and as Keith keeps grinding, he can't help but let out a couple of tiny moans.

Keith feels himself growing a bulge too. Lance's moans have a strong effect on him. The heat inside him starrs to build but he does his best to force it down. This is not a situation where breathing fire would be appreciated. Slowly, Keith's hands travel up Lance's body, feeling every curve.

Lance takes deep breaths when he finally pulls his lips away. His eyes are hooded when he looks at Keith and his pupils are large. Biting his lower lip, Lance looks him over before pulling his own shirt off for Keith to better trail his hands over him. "Your touch is addicting." Even speaking normally, his voice is almost a moan.

"Your body is addicting," Keith mumbles breathlessly. He trails his hands up Lance's chest, then to his nipples. They are oddly eye catching right now. He rubs his fingers over them and fiddles with them as they harden.

"Ah, ngh." Lance had started to reply when Keith started playing with his way too sensitive nipples. He lets his eyes close, wanting all of his senses to focus on how amazing it feels to be touched by Keith. Grinding against him again, Lance lets out a sensual moan before leaning forward to trail his own hands up Keith's chest. Not being able to focus enough to properly see Keith's chest, he lightly drags his nails down.

Keith groans and puff his chest out. He knows that Lance likes what he's doing now but he really wants Lance to tell him what to do. Lance must have some experience in this part, right? "What do you want me to do?" He whispers into his mate's ear as he lightly pinches the nipples.

Lance shivers when Keith whispers into his ear. Grinning and forcing his eyes open, he leans in and kisses Keith before nervously asking for permission past Keith's lips with his tongue. With one hand, he grabs Keith's hand and wordlessly moves it to his crotch and give a needy moan.

Keith meets Lance's tongue with his own. He moans at the feeling. It's slippery but pleasant. Following Lance's silent instructions, he rubs his crotch. It's a bit warmer than the rest of Lance's body.

Lance moans louder and thrusts a bit into Keith's hand before reaching down to slide his hand into Keith's pants. It almost causes a hitch in his movement when he realizes he isn't really sure if dragon anatomy is the same, but when he feels a similar bulge to his, Lance starts to rub his fingers along Keith's length before having to pull away from the kiss to take a deep breath and release and loud moan.

Keith moans and more heat builds up inside him. It's like an inferno inside of him now. He rubs his thumb over Lance's tip, hoping humans have similar sensitive spots.

Lance takes in a sharp breath when Keith rubs his tip then moans out his name. He forces his eyes open long enough to meet Keith's eyes. "I want to undress you." He voices breathlessly as one hand moves to remove Keith's pants while the other pumps Keith a bit more.

"Go-ahhhh Go ahead," Keith moans. He uses one hand to undo the scarf around his waist before pulling Lance's pants down. "Lance," he groans when cold air hits his groin.

Lance blinks hard to keep himself focused. He looks over Keith once he's undressed and shivers. "You are fucking gorgeous." He compliments as he pumps harder and moans at the attention on his dick. "This feels...uuugh so good." He moans and starts to leak precum.

"Lance," Keith moans again but this time, his breath is a lot warmer. He wants more, he needs more. Despite both their hands being in the way, he thrusts his hips against Lance's.

Lance gasps when Keith thrusts against him. His face turns a shade of red as he moves his hand to grind against Keith and makes out with him. Between kisses, Lance asks, "What do...you want...me to do...I don't have...well, I might not be good."

Keith moves his hands back to Lance's waist and grinds harder. "Give me everything." He pulls away from the kiss to nibble Lance's neck. His mouth gets warmer as the heat builds inside him.

Lance gasps and moans as they grind together but he shakes his head. "Take it." He begs. "Take whatever you want." He whines the words as he angles his head for Keith to better be able to bite him. Despite not really knowing what to do, Lance grabs Keith's dick and leads it toward his hole. "Please take me."

Keith growls and bites Lance a little harder. Slick with precum, he starts to pull Lance down onto him. A very weak tongue of fire licks his mate's skin.

Lance lets out a small scream and moans while shaking. He grips onto Keith and moans more when the fire slips over his skin. "Oh gods Keith...so good." Digging his nails in a bit, Lance starts to ride Keith a bit.

Keith thrusts up, needing more. He pulls away from Lance's neck to moan his name. It's warm being inside Lance. He combs one hand into Lance's hair and pulls him into his neck. "Bite me."

Lance leans in and bites onto Keith's neck before riding him hard. He whines into the feeling and lets out a small scream when Keith enters all the way. "Holy shit Keith," Lance groans out, "you're so big." He bites down again, displacing some of his discomfort from stretching out by making two tight fists against Keith's back.

"Bite harder," Keith groans. He slowly starts to lift Lance up, thinking that Lance is in pain and wants out.

Lance nods and bites down hard before pushing back down onto Keith. "It's a good hurt." He moans quietly into Keith's ear before biting down again and grinding against Keith hard.

Keith lets out a loud moan, a little bit of fire coming out. "You lead." He doesn't want to go too fast and actually hurt Lance. Despite saying that, he grinds back.

Lance nods then wraps both hands to hook onto Keith's shoulders before starting to ride Keith faster. "You're so damn sexy." Lance moans into Keith's ear then bites down hard onto Keith's neck.

Keith moans as shivers run down his spine. After getting a sense for Lance's rythem, he thrusts to match it. "You're the sexy one." He nuzzles against the hair above Lance's ear.

Lance's eyes start to roll back in his head from ecstasy and he moans wildly when Keith starts thrusting against him. "Fuck Keith. Oh my fucking god." He feels his spine melting and screams as he is growing close to cumming.

Keith hugs Lance close, not wanting to accidentally burn him of the fire grows out of control. "Lance," he moans. A different type of heat starts to build too. "My mate," Keith partially growls.

Lance breathes faster and moans loud, especially when Keith moans his name then he bites down hard as he tightens around Keith. He gasps then releases Keith's skin and screams before orgasming. "Keeeeith."

"Aaahhh," Keith moans as Lance tightens around him. "Lance," he groans as he cums inside. He hugs Lance close as he lets out most of the heat that built up. A little bit of fire may have licked Lance's back but Keith's eyes were closed.

Lance feels the heat and likes it more than he thought he would. "Holy shit Keith." He barely manages to speak and he weakly lifts his head up to try to look at him. "That...was amazing."

Keith smiles. "That's good, it would be bad if it wasn't." He nuzzles into Lance's neck. "Your inside is warmer compared to your outside."

Lance giggles a bit. "Yeah?" He isn't really sure what to say in response but keeps laughing. "Is that a good thing?" Giggling he nuzzles against Keith and sighs. "Was it...ok for you too? I kinda just...did what felt good."

"It felt amazing and I don't know. Are humans supposed to be warmer inside than outside? Maybe all your body heat gets trapped inside so it's warmer." Keith rubs his nose against the shallow bite mark on Lance's shoulder.

Lance laughs more. "I think that's normal." He kisses Keith's cheek then tilts his head to look into his eyes. "I think I might just get use to being your treasure." He says while looking at Keith with a slight blush on his cheeks before kissing Keith again.

"Good cause you're not taking my treasure away," Keith says once they pull away. He hugs Lance possessively with a playful smirk. He kisses right next to Lance's lips and quickly moves his head so that Lance's won't be able to kiss him easily.

Lance smiles and reaches to kiss him and can't reach so he stretches to reach and whines. "Keeeith." He whines while trying to reach him before realizing he can't and pouting. "I won't leave. So kiss meeee."

Keith chuckles and boop kisses. "There," he says with an innocent smile. His heart flutters, probably causing tiny flames inside him.

Lance whines when the kiss is so short so he struggles to get free enough to grab Keith and give him a good kiss before exhaling. "Is it too soon to say...I think I love you?"

Keith bites his lower lip but that doesn't stop his smile from growing. "Not at all. I love you too." He kisses Lance properly this time as he trails his hands down.

Lance melts so much that he has to hold onto Keith as he moans into the kiss with a pitiful whine. When they desperate, Lance looks at him with glittering eyes. "I'm so happy." He hugs Keith close and looks damn near ready to cry.

Keith wraps his wings around the both of them. He trails his hands back up Lance's body to combs them into Lance's hair. "I'm assuming it's normal for humans to cry when they are happy," he comments as he continues to comb through the short brown locks.

Lance nods and buries his face in Keith's neck. "I'm just...you...are keeping me and it's..." He shakes his head and hugs Keith more. "I love you. I'm glad I'm your treasure."

"I'm glad too," Keith says softly. He nuzzles into Lance's hair. "Thank you for finding me."

Lance laughs and shrugs. "I guess we should thank the guards really." He cuddles into Keith and sighs. "So...anything else you want to do, my mate?"

Keith sways his tail happily. "Shall we go clean ourselves?" He lightly scratches Lance's back, making shapes and patterns.

Lance hums into the scratches on his back. "That feels so nice." He sings before kissing whatever skin is closest to him. "But yes, we should likely clean up. Off to the waterfall?"

"Yes, off to the waterfall." Keith unwraps his wings in order to gather their clothes. He doesn't force Lance off so he's reaching around to grab Lance's clothes.

Lance laughs and decides to just cling to Keith while letting him grab the clothes. To repay Keith, Lance kisses his neck the whole time Keith grabs the clothes until Keith looks at him then boops his nose into Keith's.

Keith chuckles. "I love you so much." He boops back several times before handing Lance his clothes. "You don't want to go out naked, do you?"

Lance looks down to the clothes and shrugs. "I guess not." He laughs then pulls on the pair of pants, with his face red from Keith's compliment. (Yes, saying he loves him so much is a compliment to Lance.) Once his pants are on, Lance stands and stretches before flinching a bit and hoping Keith doesn't see it.

Keith say it. "Did I hurt you?" He asks aa he quickly finishes tying the scarf around his waist. "Where is it?" He turns Lance around and looks for any blood.

Lance sighs and grabs Keith in a hug before laughing a bit. "You're big. And you were my first time." He give him a look with one eyebrow raised before whispering into his ear. "It was worth it."

Keith blushes and glimmers. "A-are you sure your not actually injured?"

"I mean, I'm sure you burned me a bit but it- uh- actually felt kinda good?" Lance admits before laughing. "But yes, I'm fine. I heal fast anyway, remember?" He grabs Keith and kisses him.

Keith relaxes. "Would you like warm water again?" He asks softly once they pull away. He then starts to lead Lance out of the cave.

Lance smiles as he follows behind Keith. "Honestly, I'm fine either way so long as you're with me." He gives a bashful sideways grin.

Keith smiles and nuzzles Lance. "I'll just be above you for a bit like last time." He takes a few steps back in order to have enough room to transform.

Lance waits for Keith to transform before running back up and hugging him. Once he had Keith's attention, Lance smiles and boops him with his nose. He then climbs onto Krith's back and nuzzles into him. "You are pretty any form you're in." Lance says with a blush.

Keith gives a toothy grin at the boop. Lance can make him so happy with such a simple thing as that. His scaled shimmer at the compliment before he takes off. "You're very pretty too," he says as he glides down to the waterfall.

Lance runs his hands over Keith's scales as they shimmer and he nuzzles his cheek against his scales before blushing. "I guess I'm pretty for a street thief yeah. But you're prettier so," he sticks his tongue out, face red.

"That's just your opinion," Keith argued. He had turned his head just in time to see Lance's adorable expression. If he was able to, he would meet Lance's tongue with his. "I bet others will find you prettier than me." He tries to copy Lance but in dragon form, it just doesn't look the same.

"But others are stupid." Lance responds without missing a beat then laughing at Keith's expression. "And I don't care what others think. I _know_ how gorgeous you are and how lucky I am to get to be so close to it." Once at the edge of the wafter, Lance undressed and slips in with a sigh. "The water feels amazing today."

"I thought you don't like cold water." Still in dragon form, Keith slowly steps into the water. To him, the water is freezing until his body heat starts warming the water.

Lance shrugs then swims toward where the warm water is. "I mean...warm is better. But the water just feels good." He blushes a bit. "It's nice to not be sticky."

"Did it get to your clothes? We can wash them too." Keith slowly walks around Lance, curling around him. "Do you need to wash inside too?" He isn't sure if it would come out easily or stick to Lance's walls. Maybe they should have talked about all this first instead of after.

"No it had dried by the time I put clothes on." Lance cuddles into Keith, face still red. "I don't really know. I'm kinda really new to this. Its not like I've had people to ask or anything." He buries his face into Keith's side. "I'll just hang out in the water for a bit."

Keith nods, finding that reasonable. He nuzzles Lance before fully relaxing. "We should go to town again later today, get you more clothes and food. And a... blan ket."

Lance keeps his face buried but nods. "Probably a decent idea." He mumbles. "It is kinda chilly in your cave."

"We can get as many as you want," Keith says with a smile. He wouldn't mind a pile of fluffy things for Lance. It's cute, imagining Lance in the pile of fluffiness.

When Lance finally unburies his face, the look there is one of a boy who has clearly never been spoiled. He isn't sure how to respond to it so instead he just swims over to be in front of Keith and boops his nose before giving him a kiss on his snout. "You're going to make me spoiled." He responds quietly at last.

Keith's smile widens and he splashes with his tail. "I know," he says with pride. He'll give Lance the world if that's what he wanted. The universe even. He gives Lance a soft boop as his gaze turns into a lovingly one.

Lance cant hide his smile at how happy Keith looks. He runs his hands along Keith's scales and sighs. "I wish I could give you more...er...anything?" Pouting without realizing it, Lance's gaze drifts downward.

Keith nudges Lance with his snout to look back up at him. "You've given everything a male dragon could ever truly want. Someone to spoil."

Lance looks back up and blushes then slips under the water with a red face. While under the water, he runs his hands through his hair then comes back up and flings his hair back before wiping off his face. "You're not just saying that?" He asks, clearly assuming Keith is just saying it to make him feel better.

"Not at all," Keith says as he nuzzles his snout against Lance's cheek. "It's part of the reason we like the horde treasure, to impress and spoil our mate during and after courting."

Lance somehow blushes more before burying himself into Keith's neck. "You don't have to impress me. I assure you of that. The best treasure you have is you anyway." Realizing what he said only makes Lance even more red. "Oh gods. That was so cheesy." He whines to himself.

Keith chuckles. "Actually, my best treasure is you." He lifts one of his front legs to gently backhand paw Lance's leg.

Lance whines and shakes his head. "Stooooop. I'm gonna die." He complains with a smile and red face then looks up to Keith. "Can you transform so I can tackle you and not feel so silly?"

"Sure." Keith is trying hard to not chuckle again as he does as Lance wants. Instead of his regular two legged form, Keith is in human form. No tail, no wings. His horns are smaller and less scale patches. He even has some sort of shirt on!

Lance watches him transform and his jaw falls a bit before he walks up and runs his hand along Keith's jaw and puts it through his hair. "Keith..." He looks him over, obviously amazed by what he sees. "Did...did you do this on purpose?"

Keith raises an eyebrow. "Do what?" He looks down and is shocked. No wonder it felt like something was on him, there is something on him! He looks over his shoulders and finds no wings. He looks to the other side to try and find his tail. He finally looks back up at Lance with wide eyes.

Lance trails his hands along Keith gently as Keith looks him over. He leans in when Keith looks at him with wide eyes and kisses him. "Well...no doubt now. We are certainly bonded." He kisses Keith's neck. "It didn't hurt though did it?"

"No. It's just..." Shivers run down Keith's spine. His neck isn't any more or any less sensitive. "Weird. I can still feel where my tail and wings would be."

"I believe it." Lance runs his hands over where Keith's wings would be and down to his ass with a smirk. He looks Keith over again. "You still look amazing."

Keith lets out a moan as Lance's hand rub over where his wings would be. It surprises him so he tenses up as a dark blush spread across his cheeks. The few scale patches he has shimmers.

Lance's eyebrow raises and he gives a devious smile. "What was that?" He asks before running his hands along the spots again.

Keith tries to keep quiet by biting his lips together but he ends up moaning again. His eyes roll back a little as he holds onto Lance's shoulders.

Lance's breath catches as he watches Keith melt. He slowly trails his fingers back up the spot before dragging his nail back down over it and kissing his neck and whispering, " _This_ I could get use to."

Keith lets out a whiny moan. He's practically leaning all his weight on Lance now. He arcs his back, making his butt stick out a little as he hides his face in Lance's neck.

"Shit that's sexy." Lance feels himself twitch with Keith's moan. He grabs Keith's ass both both hands then bites his neck. Keeping one hand on Keith's ass, he trails his nails back up Keith's back while biting up his neck.

"Lance," Keith moans as his knees start to give out. That causes Lance's hand to slip and press against where Keith's tail was, making him moan louder.

Lance shivers and drags Keith toward a shallower part of the beach before finding a clear spot to lay down. He pulls Keith on top of him by scratching both of the spots he's discovered are sensitive. "I like this." He moans the words in response to Keith's sounds. "I like this a lot."

Keith whines again. He unintentionally grinds against Lance while trying to arc away from the touch. The sensations is too overwhelming.

Lance gasps and closes his eyes when Keith grinds against him. "Might I have _accidentally_ made you want round two?" He speaks sensually into Krith's ear while dragging both hands up from where his tail use to be to Keith's shoulders.

Keith moans louder and tries to nod. The pleasure is too much for him to be able to tell if his body is listening to him. All he knows is that he's hard and wants more.

Lance bites his lower lip and takes a deep breath. "Do you want to take me again?" He asks unsure how this works, but knowing he too wants more. Looking down, he slips his hand into Keith's pants and pumps him with one hand while scratching at the sensitive spots. "I should get these clothes off you too." He says teasingly while working Keith.

Keith moans louder. It's weird not having his usual heat build up inside him. "Yes!" he moans," Take you- aaahhh!" He then bites down on Lance gently, not yet realizing that his teeth aren't as sharp as they used to be.

Lance shivers at the eager sound in Keith's voice. Its way sexier than he imagined it to be. He moves his hands away from Keith to undress him as quickly as he can. "Bite harder." Lance tells him once Keith is naked then pulls him of top of him before raking Keith's back with his nails. "And take me however you want."

Keith growls and bites harder. He lowers one hand to align himself with Lance's entrance. He is too far gone to be gentle so he thrusts hard and immediately starts moving.

Lance wasn't expecting him to thrust so hard so he grips Keith hard, breath catching in his throat for a solid minute then screams once his breath has returned. He breathes hard and his eyes refuse to focus. "Damn Keith." He groans between thrusts as the pain dulls a bit.

Keith moans with each thrust, not at all having realized that Lance was in pain. He grips tight onto Lance's hips as he moves to bite the other side of Lance's neck.

Lance's body starts to shiver. The pain is -thankfully- starting to give way to the pleasure but he can't deny it hurts a bit. Lance shakily reaches a hand up to Keith's hair and whines when he grips his hips. When Keith bites him, Lance releases something of a scream and a moan. "Fuck! Keith!" He grips his hair a bit harder then brings his other arm around Keith's back and presses himself into Keith's chest and tries to bite him but his mouth won't close for all the shouting moans leaving his lips.

Keith moans louder as Lance's nails start to dig into his back. "Lance!" He moans back and slowly nibbles to a kiss. Both of their moans get muffled as he slips his tongue into Lance's mouth. His tongue isn't as long or as warm but he doesn't really notice the change.

Lance struggles to not pulls away from the kiss, feeling his breath is short but seeing Keith react like this, despite it being a bit painful, is immeasurably attractive. He finally pulls away to gasp for air and tries communicating again. Not too surprisingly it doesn't work great. "Keith...you...AH-ngh..." He grabs Keith's hip trying to signal to give him a second but it likely gives the wrong idea. "Fuck!"

Keith starts to thrust faster. "Lance! Good!" He tries to ask but it doesn't come out that way. He can already feel his climax building and he's glad he doesn't have to worry about having to breath fire along with it.

Lance's eyes roll back a bit when Keith moves faster. Does it feel better or worse? He honestly can't tell, but his breath is struggling to escape with each thrust and failing. When his eyes finally look back to Keith, Lance wants to laugh at himself but can't. Despite hurting, he watches Keith with watery eyes and feels himself nearing climax, though surely not as fast as Keith. He weakly leans up, biting and licking along Keith's neck for a second before collapsing back onto the beach, too overwhelmed to keep himself up. "Keith!" He reaches for his hand while screaming his name. Somehow screaming seems to displace the ache and heighten the pleasure so he screams a bit with each thrust.

Lance looks so amazing with watery eyes and a wrecked expression. Keith holds Lance's hand as he moves harder and faster. "Lance!" He is close to climax. "Close!" He lowers his head so that they are almost forehead to forehead. Being closer, Lance is clearer and is even more amazing.

Lance grips Keith's hand hard but cant get him to form more words as he screams and moans. His other hand goes into his own hair for a second as if trying to pull his brain out when Keith starts moving faster. He feels his breath hitching so he releases a couple of soundless screams before finally being able to agree, "close...too..." He groans the words out before pushing his head into the sand and screaming again. His eyes can't focus but he sees Keith close to he hopes to shut himself up a bit by kissing him again. Muffling himself a bit lets Lance look at Keith to watch his face as he orgasms.

Keith moves his other hand to keep Lance's other hand from pulling his own hair. "Cumming!" He moans as he gives a few more powerful thrusts. He arcs his back as he cums as deeply inside Lance as possible. His eyes roll back and he gasps for breath. Feeling a bit light headed afterwards, he almost fall on top of Lance. He uses his elbows to brace his fall.

Lance clenches down hard when he feels Keith getting close. He grinds into him, helping himself finish. However when he feels Keith cum, it pushes Lance over the edge. He screams then cums hard. When Keith almost falls on him, Lance quickly reaches to catch him. He can't form words at first, so Lance just touches Keith' cheek with a shaky hand.

"Good?" Keith asks with a weak smile. He pulls out of Lance and lays down on top, not caring that cum is squished in between them. He doesn't know if it's because of this form or because it was their second round but he feels tired now. He nuzzles into Lance's neck with closed eyed.

Lance hugs Keith and looks into his eyes, flinching slightly when he pulls out of him. He leans up and kisses Keith deeply instead of answering then gives a small laugh at Keith's sleepy face. "Need a nap now?"

Keith hums and forces his eyes open. "We still need to clean up," he says with a slight whine. He slowly forces himself off Lance put instead of making it back into the water, he flops back down on the sand.

Lance doesn't dare move yet. He just watches Keith and chuckles a bit. "Are there many visitors around here?" The question exits his mouth then he shakes his head. "If not, we can just nap here."

"Cleeeaaaan," Keith whines tiredly. "I can warm the water again." Despite saying that, he makes no move to move yet.

Lance sighs and laughs before reaching over and grabbing Keith's hand. "I'm in no hurry. Just cuddle and nap. When you wake up we can get clean."

Keith scoots closer to Lance and hums. He cuddles into Lance's chest and falls asleep almost instantly. Maybe transforming into his new form used more energy than he thought.

Lance runs his hands through Keith's hair for a bit before falling asleep himself. He is thankful Keith didn't make him move. While he didnt hate what he and Keith just did by any means, he can't deny he's sore as hell.

Keith's body heat is still warmer than an average human being so even when a cloud covers the sun, it doesn't affect either of them. Not like it would with how tired they are.


	5. Chapter 5

Lance wakes up a bit before Keith, more out of discomfort than anything but he doesn't have the heart to move Keith so he starts to gently run his hands through his hair and waiting for him to wake.

Not long after, Keith starts to wake up. He leans into Lance's hand as he slowly opens his eyes. "Hi," he mumbles softly with a goofy smile.

Lance's heart melts. He leans in and kisses him. "Sleep well?" His voice is still quiet when he pulls away from the kiss.

"Yeah." Keith happily boops his nose against Lance's. "Did you?"

"You were here with me so it wasn't bad." Lance runs his hand under Keith's hair and he smiles at him before booping his nose again.

Keith's smile brightens. He sits up then pulls Lance up too. "Shall we get clean again?"

Lance groans as he is pulled up but smiles and nods. "Maybe we will have better luck this time." He laughs a bit then slowly stands to make his way to the water. damn. Still sore. he almost laughs about it.

Keith sees Lance flinch and his smile fades. "Are you okay? Did I hurt you this time?" He asks as he holds onto Lance as if his mate needed help standing.

"I'm alright. Don't worry." Lance responds sweetly then hugs Keith and kisses his neck gently, yet again avoiding the question. "Lets get clean." He smiles at Keith and kisses his cheek.

Keith childishly pouts but stays quiet as they walk into the water. It's cold and it's staying cold. "How do you deal with cold water? This form isn't heating it up at all." He cuddles into Lance, thinking it might help.

Lance wraps his arms around Keith and cuddles close to him. "You get use to it after a while. This isn't even that cold really." He hugs Keith as close as he can and boops his nose. "But we don't have to stay long."

Keith smiles and nuzzles into Lance's neck. "You're the one who needs this the most, you decide when we go." He can always just shift if he really can't stand the water's coldness anymore.

Lance nods and lets go of Keith then dives under the water. He resurfaces not too far away and pushes the water from his face. When he sees Keith watching him, Lance winks at him before calling, "But I get to see you be gorgeous and wet if I'm here!" He smiles then dives back under again.

Keith blushes and covers his face with his hands. If he hadn't known better, he would think Lance is part fish or somehow a water dragon. He knows most humans can swim but Lance's choice of swimming looks like he's riding invisible waves.

Lance swims up to Keith and smiles at him from under the water before pulling him under. He accidentally laughs, causing bubbles to go everywhere before he moves in and kisses Keith. After that he resurfaces and laughs again.

Not having expected Lance to pull him under, he takes in a bit of water. He quickly clenches his eyes closed and bites his lips together. He can feel Lance's lips against his before he is pulled back up to the surface. Gasping for air, he rushes to land. He clenches his aching chest as he tries to cough out the water. His eyes are wide with panic while he's down on his hand and knees. He tries to breath fire but can't. He shifts into his two legged form and tries again. The flame comes out bigger than he had anticipated.

Lance watches Keith with a strange mix of fear, guilt and pain in his chest. He darts over to him and, just before he can reach him, Keith exhales the big flame and Lance jumps. He watches Keith for a second before almost nervously walking up to him and putting a hand on his shoulder. "A-are you o-ok?" He is panicking and doesn't even know why.

"Y-yeah," Keith forces out between coughs. The water didn't damage his stone. He rubs his chest as he flops against Lance. _That was really scary._ He sighs as he relaxes even more. He keeps the heat inside him high, just to make sure that if there is still water inside, it won't reach the stone.

Lance feels his throat tighten. "What happened? I-I was just trying to play." He sounds ready to cry as he can see that Keith is in pain and horrified. _Is he afraid of being underwater?_ "I'm sorry."

Keith pulls Lance into a hug and rubs his back. "It's okay. It's my fault, I didn't tell you." He knows Lotor would not like more people knowing about dragon secrets but Lance needs to know. "I'm okay, I promise."

Lance hugs him tight. "You really promise?" He asks, still sounding guilty. "I really just...I was being silly. I didn't mean to...to do whatever." His eyes open wide as if a light goes off. "Is it because you're a fire dragon?!" Sounding panic, he grabs Keith's face. "I didn't think about it. Water is probably not good for you. It's why I've never seen you drink any. Did I almost kill you or something? Oh my gods. I'm so sorry."

Keith gives a weak smile as he tries to massage the tension out of Lance's shoulders. "A little bit won't kill me but yes, it's because I'm a fire dragon. There's a fire stone inside me. I guess you can say it's like a half of my heart." He moves a hand to caress Lance's cheek. "I have a heart but I can't survive with just one or the other."

Lance listens carefully and says not a word as Keith explains but his eyes grow subconsciously watery as he listens. He stares at him for a minute, head spinning rapidly. _I almost killed him. I'm so stupid._ Lance grabs Keith in a tight hug. "I didn't know. I'm so sorry." He grips him almost dangerously tight, as though if he lets go Keith might vanish. When he finally lets go, he touches Keith's chest gently and pouts. "I never meant to."

"I know you didn't mean to," Keith says softly as he combs his hand through Lance's hair. "It's my fault for not telling you before hand. I should have told you when you asked about dragons." He kisses Lance's forehead. "All dragons have a stone in them and there are people who want our stones for themselves because they know what it can do."

Lance's eyes go wide again and he pouts before grabbing him in a tight hug. "I'm sorry." He shakes his head into Keith's chest and laughs almost bitterly. "I should have known." Gripping onto Keith tight, he kisses his skin gently then looks back up. "Are you...in danger because of it?"

Keith's heart flutters at the kiss. He feels bad for making Lance worry but seeing Lance so worried about him makes him happy. "For the most part, no because I'm in a contract. Lotor would know if I'm dying and I can always call out for him if I'm in danger. It's another reason why dragons would prefer being in a contract with a magic one. The non contract dragons are the ones in most danger of hunters."

Lance cuddles into Keith and sighs. "I'll protect you too." He laughs after saying it. "I know I can't do much, but if i can help, I will." He looks up to a Keith and kisses him passionately before pulling away, eyes still closed for a minute. When they open, he sighs. "Because I love you more than...more than anything."

"Thank you," Keith smiles lovingly," I love you too, I wouldn't trade you for the world." He wraps his wings around the both of them as he pulls Lance into another deep kiss.

"Even though I could have just accidentally killed you and I'm an idiot?" He asks once they separate. "I'm sure there are other less stupid people that would love to be with you." He pouts a little, clearly still beating himself up over hurting Keith.

Keith cups Lance's cheek with his hand. "You're not stupid. Pulling me under for a little bit isn't going to kill me. It takes a lot to extinguish my flame." He smiles and boops Lance. "No matter who would want to be with me, I only want you."

Lance's eyebrows point upward and he grins a stupid smile before slowly turning red. "I love you." He squeaks out before his eyes look downward.

"I love you too, my treasure," Keith says softly as he nuzzles into Lance's hair.

Lance smiles and nuzzles before shivering and cuddling into him more. "Maybe...we can go get clothes? And...blankets?"

"Yeah, we can go do that." Keith unwraps his wings so that Lance can get up. "Do you have a town in mind that you saw fluffy blankets or shall we try to town we went to last time?"

"Um..." Lance scratches the side of his head and shivers before finding the clothes he'd taken off. "Anything is fine with me." He looks over to Keith and smiles. "I just want to make sure I won't be cold when you have to go to work."

Keith gets up and quickly puts everything back on before transforming into his dragon form. "Do you have the pouches?" He asks as he looks over Lance's things. "We can go back to the cave to get more coins if you think we'll need more."

Lance nods and holds the pouch up that is tied to his pants. "We should have plenty still." He smiles then climbs on to Keith's back and nuzzles his cheek into his scales. "Head wherever you like best."

"We'll go to the same town. Maybe they'll have magic fluffy ones," Keith says as he starts to flap his wings. He slowly gets lifted off the ground before he starts moving forward.

"They have magic blankets?!" Lance asks excitedly then laughs as they take off. Despite having flown more than once or twice recently, he adores it still. Laughing as he holds one arm out to fly through the air, Lance takes a deep breath and closes his eyes as the wind dries his hair.

"They might. There is so many magic items, it's hard to remember what they have. There's even magic clothes that could survive being submerged in lava." By the time Keith is done talking, they are already slowly descending to land.

Lance had listened with eyes closed, imagining the many amazing things. When he feels them hitting the ground, he opens his eyes and cuddles into him and smiles. "I'm not sure I need magic clothes. Or, well...I hope not." He nuzzles his nose against Keith's neck then slides down and hurries to meet his gaze.

Keith boops Lance with his nose and asks,"Two legged or human form?" He knows that he'll need to practice his new form before it feels natural to him. It was weird without his wings and tail.

Lance blushes a little and bows his head with a smile. "Two legged. I...really like that form. It's probably my favorite." He boops into Keith's nose once more then waits patiently.

Keith smiles and transforms. His tail sways happily as he nuzzles up to Lance. "You just like my scales huh?" He asks with a teasing tone.

Lance blushes a bit before mumbling, "And...your tail and wings...and...you're just really pretty like this." He pouts but nuzzles back happily.

Keith chuckles. "Thank you. It's an honor to be called pretty by the prettiest thing in the world."

Lance makes an odd squeaking sound before covering his face and blushing bright red. "That's...a harsh over exaggeration if I ever heard one." He shakes his head then cuddles against Keith. "I guarantee that's...totally skewed."

Keith hums with a slight smirk. "I don't think so. I should know what's pretty. I'm a dragon after all." He hugs Lance tight and cuddles back. "Unless you think my perspective is skewed."

Lance just blushes more and whines. "I mean...may-maybe it is? I'm really not that special." He clears his throat and buries his face into Keith's chest. "But if you like me being your treasure I'm really glad." There is no hiding how flustered his is at this point.

Keith chuckles. He loves seeing Lance blush. "I'm beyond happy to have you as my treasure and mate." He kisses the top of Lance's head then gazes lovingly at the hiding human.

Lance smiles into Keith's chest then looks up at Keith and nods. "I'm the same way." He then quickly gets flustered. "EX-EXCEPT THAT YOU AREN'T MY TREASURE I'M YOUR TREASURE!" Waving his hands frantically, he panics. "I mean- I mean, I do treasure you, but you - I -" With a sigh, he just hides his face again before mumbling. "I quit."

Keith can't help but laugh. He nuzzles into Lance's hair as he tries to control himself. "You're so cute!" he squeals between laughs. He sighs once his laughter dies down. "I don't mind being your treasure," he mumbles softly.

Lance listens to Keith laugh and finds himself falling deeper in love. What an amazing sound. He looks up at Keith with a lovelorn look and just watches him laugh with a stupid smile on his face. "But I don't need treasure. I have everything I could ever wish fore in my arms already."

That makes Keith blush, but not as dark as Lance. His heart skips a beat and the heat inside him rises. "Th-that's good but we also need to get you blankets and clothes."

Lance's smiles grows as he watches Keith blush. "Payback." He teases before grabbing Keith's hand and walking back toward town. "I want you to pick out an outfit for me. Dress your treasure how you'd like to see me."

Keith's blush darkens, imagining Lance in clothes he has seen females wear while trying to get a magic one's attention. "But you have to tell me if they are uncomfortable or if you don't like it."

Lance raises an eyebrow. "Have you seen my clothes?" He responds playfully. "I'm not exactly picky." He notes the blush though and smirks before moving in close. "Now I'm really curious."

Keith shakes his head furiously as his blush darkens even more. His scales are practically tiny stars at this point with how much they are shimmering. "Y-you don't want to know." The women were is such revealing clothes that he doesn't think it would properly cover a man.

Lance smirks and rubs his arm against Keith's. "Oh but I _really_ do. I mean...look at you." He raises an eyebrow and smiles larger. "You're so flirty and something is making you this bashful? I need to know." Perking up, he shakes his head. "No, no, show me. Just pick it out and I'll wear it."

Keith ducks his head and mumbles very quietly," Okay." He hopes that the store doesn't have any of them as they finally find a store. Tail slightly dragging on the ground, Keith follows Lance in. After a quick glance around, he lets out a small sigh of relief. There isn't any in plain sight.

Lance traces his fingers around Keith's scales as they walk around. He looks over the clothes and his eyes sparkle. As long as he can remember, he never had anything this nice. Taking several of the outfits between his hands, Lance runs the fabric between his fingers and smiles. "Well? Look around. Find what you were looking for."

While looking around, Keith had picked out a few things that he thinks Lance would like. Most have either some gold on it or is a golden accessory. "No," he shakes his head. He hopes Lance doesn't make him look around the area they have yet to reach. From the clothes on display, he can already tell there will most likely be at least one in there somewhere.

"Awww..." He pouts and nudges him. "Come on. I wanna see what you were thinking." Lance kisses his cheek. "Please? Make your treasure really pretty."

Keith blushes. "Alright," he mumbles before booping his nose against Lance's cheek. "You go try on everything while I try to look for it." He holds out everything he has and jesters to the changing room.

Lance nods and takes the clothes carefully before walking them over to the changing rooms as though he's afraid that by dropping them he would break them or something. As Lance puts on the outfit, he looks himself over in awe. "Keith...are you sure about this?" Peeking his head out of the room to see if he can spy his dragon, Lance looks himself over again, sure the outfit is too fancy for him. "This has to be expensive and it's just clothes."

While Lance is changing, Keith searches through clothes. It hard to find clothing that covers so little that's surrounded by clothes that cover a lot more. He finds the section when Lance calls for him. He looks up and loves what he sees. "I'm sure. It doesn't matter how expensive it is, if you want it, we'll buy it." He then looks back at the clothes in front of him. With pink cheeks, he picks out a set that's a light blue before walking over to his mate.

Lance runs his hands over the fabrics of his current outfit with a smile. "They _are_ really nice." He almost hums the words then looks up to see Keith blushing and takes the outfit without realizing what it was. "Am I trying this one on now?"

"I-if you want." Keith's gaze is on Lance's current outfit. It looks really nice and hopefully it's cozy too. He'll grab a one of those fluffy open shirts (sweaters) on their way out.

"Well you handed it to me so I assumed I was trying it on." He darts up and kisses Keith's cheek before going and changing. He carefully folds up the outfit he had just tried on and places it carefully on the chair before unfolding the new outfit and blushing rather violently at it. His hands run over it a bit then he unfolds it. After taking a deep breath, Lance puts the clothes on and peeks his head out to find Keith. "Keith?" His voice is crackling when he calls him.

"Y-yeah?" Keith's voice is shaky as he walks over. He unfolds his wings, blocking the entire door from view just in case Lance is visible from any angle. He doesn't want anyone else to see Lance in this outfit.

Lance pulls open the changing area and looks himself over. "I mean...I guess it doesn't look...bad but I don't think it would help me stay warm." He looks up to Keith and gives a nervous smile. "Do you like it?"

Keith blushes at the sight before him. "I-I do." He swallows loudly. "Do you like it? I-it's not really meant for warmth though. We don't have to get it."

Lance grins when he sees Keith's expression. He walks up to him and cuddles up against him with a smirk. "You like it, hm?" Running his finger down Keith's chest, Lance almost purrs as he looks at him. "And miss seeing that face? I think not." With a little chuckle, Lance runs his fingers over Keith's slightly open mouth.

Keith's blush darkens and does his best to push down his arousal. Lance looks so amazing and he can clearly see the bulge in the lower half of the outfit due to it being made for a female. "A-are you sure? It will be super cold in that."

"I guess you'll just have to keep me warm." Lance purrs into Keith's ear, purposefully pressing up against him when he does. He trails his hand back down Keith's chest again and sighs. "Shame I have to wait to long to let you play with this then, hm?" Despite his teasing, Lance is red too.

Shivers run down Keith's spine and he can't stop himself from getting hard at this point. He opens his mouth to talk but is speechless.

Lance grins deviously and licks Keith's lips before stepping back and laughing. "Should I stop?" He speaks more confidently than he looks.

Keith's has to fight himself on this answer. "Y-yes. I-I don't think the store owner would appreciate it if you didn't." The imagine will haunt him until Lance changes into it again though.

Lance smiles and nods then goes back into the changing room. "Am I getting my old outfit on or the new one?" He asks while changing.

"That's up to you. It's still pretty sunny outside," Keith answers. He doesn't mind what Lance wears (not including the last one), so long as Lance will be comfortable in it while they continue shopping.

"Hmmm..." Lance looks the outfits over and nods before putting on the new one. It's so soft and nice he can't _not_ wear it. So he quickly dresses himself and grabs up the other clothes before stepping back out to greet Keith. Bowing when he sees Keith. "Your treasure look pleasing to you?"

Keith frowns. He doesn't like Lance bowing to him cause then it doesn't feel like they are equal. "Yes but please don't bow. Let's go get you a fluffy shirt then we can go look for fluffy blan kets."

Lance looks up a bit sad. "You don't like me being on my knees for you?" He questions before looking up at Keith with a smirk. "Fluffy sounds nice. And a blanket."

"Blanket," Keith repeats with slightly pink cheeks. He grabs Lance's hand and leads to where he saw the fluffy clothes are. "What color?"He had imagined Lance in white but he wants Lance to pick which one he wants.

Lance thinks about it and shrugs. "I don't know. I've always just had whatever color I could find." He blushes a bit remembering how gross his old collection of blankets and warm clothes were. Taking a deep breath, he looks over to Keith and smiles. "Something bright and pretty to compliment you." He runs his hands along a few of them and each one is a brilliant blue, brilliant teal, bright white...basically all colors he could never find in the trash or back alley before.

"You can pick more than one if you want to." Keith brushes his hand over a red one. _Lance would look good in red too._ "Don't worry about how much everything is."

Lance looks back to Keith and pouts a bit. "But you aren't getting anything and I just...I feel bad." He notices Keith running his hand along the red one and snatches it up quickly. "Want us to match?!" His face lights up so he lifts it up and cuddles it under his chin. "It's so soft." With a hum he cuddles into it a bit more.

Keith is surprised but Lance's sudden perkiness. "We can. Which color do you want?" He picks up the teal and the white. Both would look good with either of Lance's outfits. "If there one you like more or do you want both?" He holds both up against Lance to show how it looks against against his current blue.

"Hmmm..." Lance looks himself over and then holds the white up to Keith and nods. "White." He smiles and cuddles the sweater into himself. "The white looks really good against you." When he says this, Lance actually gets a bit lost looking Keith over and his already soft expression softens. "And you really don't mind getting all this for me?"

Keith blushes and fiddles with the teal one left in his hands. "I don't mind. The coins are all yours to spend." He shyly looks up at Lance. "You're my mate after all."

Lance smiles then scoots up close to Keith and cups one cheek in his free hand. He smiles as he looks into Keith's eyes then kisses him passionately before pulling back and sighing. "I just wish there was more i could do in return."

Keith smiles. "I'm sure you'll find an answer soon," he says as he boops Lance. He puts back the teal and leads Lance to the cashier. They take all the clothes and accessories and puts them into a bag.

Lance smiles and happily boops back before following Keith with a shy smile. He hands over the gold then buries his face in Keith's neck. "Thank you for this." He whispers before kissing the scales on his neck. "I'll be sure to change once we get home." His voice grows quiet when he whispers this into Keith's ear.

Keith blushes as shivers run down his spine. "You don't have to wear it today," he whispers. He takes back the bag along with a few coins that he passes to Lance. Keith thanks the cashier before leading out

Lance grins deviously as they walk back outside. "But you _want_ me to." He teases. "And who am I to deny you of what you want?" His hand trails from Keith's hip, up past his wings and his smile grows the whole way up.

Keith's blush grows darker as tingles are left where Lance's hand touches. "I-I didn't say anything about wanting you to wear it today, " he tries to argue. Hoping to distract Lance, he quickened his pace to their next destination. "Do you want to see if they have magic blankets?"

"You didn't have to." Lance teases before leaning in to kiss Keith's cheek. "But magic blankets sound awesome!" He bounces excitedly then gets distracted by how different these clothes move. Looking himself over, Lance smiles. Not realizing he's speaking aloud, Lance whispers, "I actually look nice."

"Of course you do. You look nice in everything," Keith says softly, nuzzling Lance's cheek. He brushes the back of his hand against the fabric. "You make the clothes look amazing."

Lance blushes but can't hide his giddy smile. "They looked nice before i put them on too." He pouts a little then looks up at Keith and his smile grows. As he opens the door to the shop Keith had led them to, Lance wraps his arm around Keith when they enter.

"You make them look better," Keith mumbles with a blush. The store is filled with many different things. Some seem like they are random junk than magical items. For example, there is a life size figurine of an owl.

"Why hello there, may I help you with anything today?" The cashier asks. He has orange hair and an orange mustache to go along with it. In front of him are several circular blue glass pieces.

Lance looks around and immediately falls in love with this store. He darts from one thing to the next excitedly. "Look at this stuff!" Lance chirps before the cashier speaks. He looks over and smiled to him before running up and aweing at the blue glass things. "These are so pretty." Lance responds while leaning toward them to better admire. "And...magic blankets."

The cashier chuckles and start to play with the tips of his mustache. "What type of magic would you like? I have plenty with different spells casted on them." He bends down to grab a pile from under the counter. "I have water proof, lava proof, snow proof, flying blankets, ones that won't release you until they are hit by sun light, one sided transparency." And the list goes on but by now Keith had stopped listening.

Lance had excitedly listened to all the options and couldn't decide what sounded best. "I didn't know there were going to be so many options." Lance says once the cashier had stopped speaking. Looking over to Keith, Lance wordlessly asks for help. "One sided transparency sounds cool. So do flying. So does the stress hug blanket. But i don't know."

Keith nuzzles Lance. "We can get all three, you don't have to pick just one."

"If you get three blankets, you get one small item for free," The cashier adds. "By chance, are you the human that got a free flying potion from pri- I mean, Allura?"

Lance perks up at the idea of a free anything so he nods and snatches up the three blankets before tilting his head and scrunching his eyebrows. "Yes? Why do you ask?"

"My name is Coran and she told me about you two. I'm sure she would love to know that you two have decided to be mates." Keith scrunches his eyebrows together. It's rather odd that someone would care about their customers private life. "All the items you can choose from are on this shelf here," Coran says as he gestures to the shelf closest to his desk.

"Well. Nice yo meet you Coran!" Lance smiles then darts over to the shelf and starts looking everything over. It takes him a while but finally decides on a, surprisingly, rather bland looking necklace. He puts it on and nods before hurrying back over to Coran. "And this is free? Really free? Im not stealing it."

"Completely free my boy."Coran smiles. Since Lance's hand is kinda pull of blankets, Keith hands Coran a gold coin. "I see that you really do only pay in gold. Here is your change, sorry that it has to be in silver." He hands over a handful of silver coins.

Lance nuzzles against Keith when he takes the money then nods to Coran and gives him a huge smile and respectful bow. "Thank you." He laughs boisterously before looking back up. "Thank you so much." Lance nuzzles into the blankets and hums happily.

Keith pets Lance's hair then starts to lead him out. "Come again! Let me know how well you like your items!" He yells as he waves.

Lance smiles and nods to Coran then touches the necklace with a smile. "Everything is so...perfect now that I'm with you." Lance sings happily to Keith before nuzzling into the blankets.

That makes Keith happy. "That's because we're perfect together. Shall we go home or do you wish to eat in town again?" He asks as he pets the blankets. They are really soft. "I'm not sure how much we have left at home."

Lance smiles brilliantly and blushes a bit at Keith's words. "I'm glad you think so." Lance is absolutely glowing with how happy he is. "We should have plenty at home. I don't really eat _that_ much."

Keith sways his tail. "But I might have," he chuckles, " I'm a dragon and even in other forms, I have a pretty big appetite."

"Oh." Lance bows his head and blushes. "I hadn't really thought about that." He smiles back to Keith. "Then let's go eat!"

"You pick where." Keith nuzzles Lance. "Is there other food you haven't taught me yet?"

"I don't know?" Lance responds to the second question while leading Keith around. Finally, they find a crepe place and he drags Keith inside. "I've always wanted to try one of these!"

"What are these?" Keith asks while trying to understand how to read the sign. "Crep? Are they sweet?" He sees all the fruits behind the counter.

"They are sweet!" Lance's eyes are sparkling looking them all over. "They are supposed to be so good but I've never had one." He moves close and looks over all the options before picking one of the most fanciful ones.  
Hunk happened to have walked in the same time. He sees the two being far more lovey and walks over to the dragon. "Hey how are you. Piercing healing up good?"

Keith is about to ask Lance about chocolate when Hunk comes up to him. "Hello. The healing process only took a few hours but you never mentioned they were mating earrings."

"A few hours?" Hunk is obviously surprised. "And i didn't say anything because...well if they call to you, then that's all there is to it but you two don't seem ready to admit it yet."

Keith blushes lightly. "Mating earrings call out to mates?" He has never heard that before, doesn't help that the only dragon he really talks to is Shiro. When a dragon's mate is their contractor, they just get a second matching earring.

Hunk nods then waves before stepping back as Lance is handed two crepes. Lance hands Keith his crepe and smiles happily. "I got you one too!"

Keith examines the crepe. "How did they do this? Does yours have any of the cho... chocolat?" He doesn't smell anything that he doesn't recognize in his but Lance's has a different smell. With big childish eyes, he takes a big bite.

Lance nods and takes a bite of his before offering it to Keith. "Chocolate is one of my weaknesses." He says after taking a big bite and clearing his mouth. "I thought you'd like the one with all the fruit."

"Wouldn't it be bad for you to eat it if it's your weakness?" Keith asks as he examines the dark substance. It smells good so he takes a small bite. It's not the same sweetness as fruit but it's yummy. With the heat of Keith's mouth, the chocolate melts more which makes it stick to his teeth.

"No I need it because it's my weakness." Lance laughs then takes another bite. "What did you think?"

"It's good but..." Keith trails off as he tries to get the chocolate off his teeth. "Messy." He looks down at his crepe and takes another bite, maybe it will rub the chocolate off.

Lance laughs and nods. "Yeah it can be for sure." He keeps eating his, rather quickly, until it is basically entirely gone in less than a minute. "No wonder everyone likes these so much."

Keith takes his last bite and quickly swallows. "Do you want more? They are relatively cheap compared to other things we have bought."

Lance shakes his head. "I'm plenty full." He nuzzles against Keith then stretches. "These clothes are so much more comfortable."

Keith nuzzles back. "Are you sure you don't want more? I don't know how many outfits humans have on average."

Lance nods and smiles. "I've been lucky to have two at a time my whole life." He kisses Keith's neck. "Plus I have the special one that's just for you." His voice is barely a whisper when he says that. "So I'm fine."

Keith blushes. "O-okay." He looks at the ground and rubs his tail against Lance's leg. "More food or home?" He asks softly.

"Home works for me." Lance runs his fingers over Keith's tail and smiles before leaning in and kissing him. "Unless you wanted something specific?"

Keith shakes his head. "Just things for you." He hugs Lance, not caring the Lance can't really hug back with all of the things in his arms. He nuzzles into the hair by Lance's ear.

Lance sticks his tongue out even though Keith can't see it at the angle he is. "I don't need anything else!" He argues dramatically.

Keith whines childishly before burying his face into Lance's shoulder. "You need everything," he mumbles," We can get you proper sleeping things." He understands that Lance doesn't mind sleeping on the cave floor or against him but he should at least have better options.

"I really don't need them." Lance shakes his head and laughs. "I cuddle with you every night and nothing could be more comfortable than that." He nuzzles into Keith's hair and giggles.

Keith sighs. "Stop being hard to spoil," he complains, "At this rate my treasure will become a mountain on its own." There is a teasing tone in there and he pulls away with a small smile.

"But I'm not use to needing stuff!" Lance pouts and looks at Keith with pitiful puppy eyes. "Just...get me what you want I suppose." he nearly whines the words

Keith's smile widens. "Let's get a giant sleeping mat. That way we really can have a file of fluff." He really likes the feeling of the softness. It will be harder to feel it in dragon form but it's totally worth it for Lance.

"Really? We could do that?" Lance can't hide his excitement. He's never actually had one of those. Not a real, good one anyway. His eyes light up and he smiles brilliantly.

Keith grabs Lance's arm and leads to where it would be sold. "Do you want to pick out the color?" He asks as they enter the shop. There is two human sized sleeping mats on the floor to which Keith can't not pet it.

Lance looks at them all before finally just collapsing onto the one that looked fluffiest. "Oh my gods. this is so comfortable!" He motions for Keith to try it too.

Keith laughs and collapses next to Lance. "We'd need a bigger one than this." The two of them can barely fit together, especially since Keith is in his two legged form rather than human form.

Lance pouts. "So long as it's as comfy as this one I won't complain!" He snuggles into Keith and smiles. "And so long as I still get to sleep next to you."

Keith smiles and hugs Lance close. "You never answered my question, do you want to pick the color? Match any of your blankets?"

"I...don't care?" Lance laughs. "It's just for sleeping on right?" He smiles at Keith and sighs. "I just want it to be comfy." Shrugging before standing up, Lance hops up and looks around, trying to spy a larger comfy thing.

Keith follows suite and spots a giant red one. He grabs enough silver coins and pays the cashier for the giant red sleeping mat which they have to take down before handing it over. Good thing that it comes with a free pillow due to them being mates, otherwise Keith would have insisted on buying one.

Lance watches and is just in awe the entire time. He grips the pillows tighter, getting more and more emotional as he watches Keith buy more for him. By the time Keith is back, Lance is watery eyed and grinning at him. "You really don't have to do all this."

"But I want to," Keith pouts childishly before giving Lance a quick peck on the lips. "You only deserve the best." He kisses Lance's cheek. "You may have not have had much before but now you'll have everything."

Lance sighs and nods. "I know. And it's the only reason I'm not arguing it." He grins when Keith kisses him. "I have the world now."

Keith smiles more . "Now we gotta go set up everything!" He practically skips as he leads Lance out of town. Despite the town being used to dragons, they aren't used to one being so happy with a rolled up giant sleeping mat over their shoulder.

Lance watches Keith with an adorable smile then nuzzles into Keith. "You're too cute." He laughs. Once they reach the end of town, Lance drops the blankets and grabs Keith's face to kiss him. "I love you."

"I love you too," Keith says with a loving gaze. He pulls Lance back in for another kiss before pulling away and looking over all their stuff. "Will you be able to hold everything? If you roll all the blankets together, I can carry it with the mat."

"I'll hold the blankets." He nods then wraps them around him and makes a knot. This was something he'd done many times before. "Time to go home and cuddle?"

"Time to go home," Keith says with a nod before transforming into a dragon. Once Lance is on and comfortable, he grabs the sleeping mat with one of his front claws and starts to take off.

Lance presses himself against Keith, keeping the blankets against him as they fly. His smile only seems to grow as they hit the sky and the air blows through his hair. He cant hold back a bout joyous laugh the whole time so he eventually starts to laugh before nuzzling his cheek down against Keith.

"Why are you laughing?" Keith asks as he looks around to see if he can spot what made him laugh. Nothing is out of the ordinary, maybe he missed it. He turns his head to look back at Lance, melting at the sight of his giant smile.

"I'm just happy!" Lance calls back. "I've never been this happy before so I just...laugh." He giggles as if to prove a point then leans down and kisses Keith's neck. "So thank you!"

Keith smiles. "You're welcome," he says despite knowing it wasn't just because of him. He didn't snatch Lance from town. Keith faces forward again as they land.

Once they are on the ground, Lance hops down and hurries on front of Keith to boop his nose against his snout then darts off to the cave as quick as he can with three blankets wrapped around him.

Keith enters the cave still in dragon form. It's easier to set up a giant mat in a bigger form. He smiles at the sight of Lance excitedly waiting. Using his claws, he cuts off the string keeping the mat rolled up and then helps it roll out fully.

Lance claps and darts over to help flatten it out. He spreads the blankets out then lays down on the mat and closes his eyes before humming. He looks up to dragon Keith and sighs, "It's only missing one thing."

"What?" Keith asks, thinking they had forgotten to buy something. He moves closer to Lance but doesn't sit down.

"You right here." Lance smiles and pats the spot in front of him. "Come cuddle!" Keith chuckles and transforms into his two legged form. He lays next to Lance and cuddles into him. The mat feels so much bigger now.

Lance wraps himself around Keith and buries his face into Keith's neck. He starts to kiss it, face still buried, before humming. "This is perfect." His voice is quiet as he goes back to kissing down Keith's neck. With the hand wrapped around Keith, Lance runs his fingers gently over the scales of Keith's side

Keith blushes as shivers run down his spine. He can't tell if Lance is just doing this because he wants to or if he knows and has a motive. He hasn't forgotten but he surely hopes Lance has.

"Speechless?" Lance teases between kisses. He trails his fingers over Keith's hips and smirks up at him. "Or perhaps you're just daydreaming?" The smile grows devious. "Should I help make your dream reality?"

Keith's blush darkens. _Nope. He remembers._ Just remembering Lance in the outfit makes him hard again. "D-do you want to? We did two rounds earlier." Humans don't have that much stamina, do they?

Lance smirks and disappears under the blanket that must have one way transparency. He is there for a bit before pushing Keith onto his back and crawling on top of him. His hands teasingly caress Keith's erection before pulling the blanket down to show that he has changed. Smirk growing ever larger at Keith's reaction, Lance leans down, pushing as much of him as possible against Keith as he kisses him passionately.

Keith lets out a small surprise noise as he's pushed, which quickly changes to a moan. His face gets even redder at the sight of Lance and his dick twitches. He wraps his arms around Lance. Feeling Lance start to grind against him, he moans into the kiss. He moves his hands down to Lance's hips and grinds back.

Lance slips his tongue into Keith's mouth and moans as they start to grind together. With a deep breath, he pulls away from the kiss and looks Keith over before crawling backwards down him, trailing his chest with kisses and little bites. When he reaches Keith's pants he first kisses Keith's erection through the cloth then slowly starts to remove them. "I've never done this." Lance explains quietly. "But I've...wanted to...to you..." He kisses from Keith's belly button down once the pants are out of the way.

Keith's breathing speeds up. He knows what Lance is planning to do but he wasn't prepared for how good it felt. He moans louder than he wanted and he grips onto Lance's top.

Lance feels his mind start spinning with Keith's loud moans. He uses his tongue and his mouth before testing to see how Keith likes a bit of teeth. Though a bit nervous about it, Lance tries to take more of Keith into his mouth. His eyes end up watering a bit bur the reaction Keith gives is well worth it.

Teeth feel amazing. Keith's head is tilted back as he grips tighter. His hips are shaky, due to him trying his best to fight against the strong urge to thrust. Lance's mouth feels so nice.

Lance moans into Keith and scrapes his teeth more against Keith's dick. He bobs up and down, trying to take more of Keith in with each bob down. His hands start to trail along Keith, grabbing his ass and scratching along his tail and he becomes more and more erect himself.

"Ahhh~ Lance!" Keith moans. His tail twitches a bit. "Close!" A tiny bit of smoke escapes his mouth. He needs to figure out how to keep that heat under control, if it's even possible.

Lance nods as best he can and bobs a bit faster. He looks up to Keith and finds himself growing painfully hard watching how horny Keith is. He moans into the motion a bit then drags his nail across Keith's hips as though luring the cum out.

The nails leaves tingles on his skin. Keith's moans grow louder but shorter as he tries to breath. He's so close. When Lance scratches his hips again, it throws him over the edge. He gasps then moans loudly. Not being able to hold himself down, his hips thrust to be as far inside Lance's mouth as possible.

Lance's eyes go wide when Keith thrusts into him and he nearly chokes but he manages to wait to cough until he was pulled away from Keith and had swallowed. After a couple of breathes, he looks to Keith and climbs on top of him again. "Not too bad for a first time I take it?"

"I'm sorry," Keith says between light pants. He slowly moves to sit up and rubs Lance's back. "It was really good but are you okay? Maybe it was too much for you?"

Lance smiles and nods. Instead of giving Keith a voiced answer, he leans in and kisses him before wrapping his arms around Keith and playing with the slot between Keith's wings. When he pulls away from the kiss, Lance smiles. "I'm fine."

Keith moans into the kiss. Even in this form, his back is pretty sensitive. "Is it my turn now?" he asks as he slips a finger inside the bottom piece. It must feel weird wearing this, it can barely contain Lance's hard on.

Lance shivers and gasps at the touch. Needless to say, he's crazy horny right now. "Please?" He whines before leaning in and biting Keith's neck before moaning more.

Keith slips the small clothing off and rubs a finger over Lance's hole. He moans before asking, "Is my finger okay or would you like my tongue?" He rubs around Lance's twitching entrance lightly.

Lance's eyes are barely open when Keith speaks. He has to blink hard and shake his head. "I'm...I just want whatever you want to give me." His voice sounds raw and sensual as he whines as Keith hasn't started doing anything yet. "Tease." He complains quietly.

Keith hums and nuzzles Lance's cheek. "Turn around for me, my treasure," he whispers while lightly tracing around the hole. He doesn't want to insert his nails because he feels like that would just injure Lance.

Lance whines and nods before doing as Keith asked and bites his lower lip to keep himself from moaning at the thought of what's to come.

Careful not to dig is nails into Lance's skin, he spreads the tanned butt cheeks apart. "You're so pink back here," Keith comments before running his tongue over the hole.

Lance melts the instant he feels Keith and moans loudly. "Keeeith." He doesn't realize how whiny and needy he is right now. "Don't- don't tease me." His voice comes our shaky.

Keith licks over the whole one more time before slowly pushing his tongue inside. He snakes his tongue further in until his lips are centimeters away from Lance's skin.

Lance's eyes go wide. It's such a different feeling and he can't help but shake as he feels Keith go deeper. "Keith!" He shouts before grabbing the blanket underneath him. "Oh my gods." He whines again and, already, starts to leak precum.

Keith's dick starts to harden, Lance's moans are so sexy. He starts to move his tongue. Not intentionally looking for a sweet spot, he keeps pushing against Lance's walls since he thinks it will feel better than just thrusting his tongue in and out.

Lance gasps then lets loose a whining scream. "Keep doing that Keith." He moans then lets out a few more whining shouts. "Fuck. Yes. Hoooly shit." He can no longer stay quiet as Keith had managed to find a weak spot in him.

Keith lets out a shaky breath, getting extremely aroused. He keeps wiggling his tongue where Lance moaned the loudest. It makes him slightly curious how it feels. Adding to the already overwhelming sensation, Keith starts to lightly trails his nails over the small of Lance's back down to where the sensitive inside of the legs.

Lance moans loud and grips the blankets tight. The dragging of Keith's nails is too much. He screams in ecstasy. "Keith god damn!" At that, Lance leans himself toward Keith's hole and starts to lick him, despite knowing he will likely orgasm soon, he wants Keith to share in his pleasure. Trying to match the movement of his tongue in the spot Keith was hitting on him, Lance moans loudly as he licks Keith.

Keith's eyes widen as he moans. He wasn't expecting Lance to lick him too. Noticing that he had retracted his tongue a bit, he pulls himself back together to continue pleasuring Lance. He scratches Lance again, a little harder this time due to lack of self control.

Lance clearly doesn't mind the harder scratches as he basically screams into Keith. He really wants to keep pleasing Keith but it is obvious he's struggling with how close he is to finishing.

He lowers one hand to rubs Lance's leaking tip. Hoping it feels good, he starts to push against Lance's weak spot harder.

Lance finally pulls away from Keith to scream. "Keith! I'm gonna-" he cant even finish his sentence before he has a spasming orgasm and screams the whole time. Shaking hard, he finally collapses beside a Keith and pants for air.

Keith slowly sits up, not wanting to move and accidentally rub Lance's cum on the mat. "Really good?" he asks as he rubs Lance's hips. He can't help but smile when he notices Lance's expression. His face is great and his eyes are slightly glossed over. Keith gently combs the tip of his tail through Lance's hair.

"Really good." Lance confirms before trying to focus on Keith. "Like...holy fuck." He collapses his head back and laughs. "Week ago I was being chased out of towns and starving...now this. I just..." He laughs more then motions for Keith to join him.

Keith chuckles. "Hold on, I have to clean up a bit," he says as he gestures to the mess on his stomach.

Lance blushes and shakes his head before pushing Keith onto his back. He climbs onto Keith and starts to lick him clean. "I don't want you to leave." He hums between licks.

Keith blushes deep red. "I-I wasn't going to go far." In dragon form, he could have licked himself clean. "Th-thank you though."

"But it's too far for me." Lance says once Keith is nearly clean. He licks up the last bit then kisses a line up to Keith's mouth. After the kiss he leans in to Keith's ear and whispers; "you taste delicious."

Keith blushes. "Th-that was all your cum." He hugs Lance close and cuddles. He lays his tail over Lance's legs.

"But the first round wasn't." Lance teases then moves in and kisses him again. "I just didn't get a chance to say anything."

Keith's blush darkens. "You're crazy," he teases softly. Keith leads Lance into his chest so that he can bury his nose into his brown hair.

"I might be." He agrees with a little laugh. "Works our well for you though huh?"

Keith chuckles. "Works out perfectly." He kisses the top of Lance's head. "Are you tired? I know that we took a nap not too long ago, but this mat is just so comfy that I might fall asleep while cuddling."

"Honestly...that kinda took a lot out of me." Lance laughs before cuddling into Keith. "And I'm not sure i remember ever sleeping on something as comfortably as this with you." He yawns and snuggles up close.

"What does that mean? With me, you've only ever slept on me and on the sand." Keith also yawns and nuzzles more into Lance's hair. "This is really soft though," he mumbles softly as he closes his eyes.

"Well, i mean, _just_ sleeping on here wouldn't be perfect. But sleeping on here _with you_ **is** perfect." Lance kisses Keith's chest a couple of times. "I love you."

"I love you too, my treasure," Keith says with a tone that sounds like he's on the verge of chuckling again. "Good night." He rubs Lance's back to help sooth him to sleep.

Lance falls asleep quickly, cuddled into Keith and making happy sounds as he drifts off to sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

Despite Keith falling asleep after Lance, he is the first to wake up. He smiles down at Lance and sways his tail against the mat. He rubs a hand over the nearest blanket. _I'll give Lance the best home._

Lance cuddles into Keith for quite some time. He finally starts to wake up and when he opens his eyes, he sees that Keith is awake so he stretches and sets up to ask for a kiss. "Did I keep you long?"

"Not at all." Keith smiles and gives Lance his kiss. "Is there anything you want to do today or shall we stay here for a while?"

"I'm fine staying here as long as you like." Lance sits up then snuggles into Keith's chest. "I am more than content just spending time getting to know my dragon." He smiles warmly then starts to trace circles on Keith's chest.

Keith smiles more. "What else would you like to know?" His tails sways faster. "What about me getting to know you? You don't really talk about yourself."

"Hmm...what did you like to do before I was around?" Lance smiles happily and it falters only slightly when Keith asks about him. "If you want to know something just ask."

Not thinking his answer for the question, Keith doesn't bother answering it. Dragons don't typically do much in their free time. "Did anyone teach you how to do things?" He is really asking if Lance has any sort of parental figure but because of Shiro, he doesn't want to word it that way.

Lance fidgets a bit in his seat then nods. "For a while I did anyway." He swallows hard and thinks back to that time. "But...then I was on my own." Smiling up at Keith as though the memories don't bother him, Lance gives a giddy smiles. "They weren't as cool as your space dragon friend though."

"It's hard to be cooler than a dragon," Keith says with a slight smirk. He hugs Lance close and wraps his tail around too. "What happened to them?" he asks softly as he nuzzles into Lance's hair.

"That's true." Lance pets Keith's tail then hears the second question and sighs. "I'm not...really sure." He admits quietly. "They left me. So..." Trying not to sound too down, Lance looks up to Keith and can't help but smile. "They might be out there still."

Keith hugs Lance tighter, feeling bad that he asked. "Would you... Like to meet them again?" He knows that Lance will most likely never leave but he can't help but slightly worry that Lance would want to be with who raised him, even if it's just for a bit.

Lance cuddles into Keith and says nothing for a minute. He finally shakes his head and shrugs. "No? Maybe? I wasn't good enough so it's...not like they would want to anyway." He sighs and cuddles back into Keith then smiles. "Im far happier with you anyway."

Keith smiles sadly. "They are idiots for not wanting you," he whispers before kissing the top of Lance's head again.

"Let me meet you so I can't be too mad." Lance smiles at Keith then lifts his head to give Keith a small kiss. "So, tell me about your contractor. Nice guy?"

Keith combs his hand through Lance's hair. "Yeah. He's nice but during meetings he can be pretty harsh. If he knows a plan won't work, he'll shut it down immediately."

"To the point kinda guy huh?" Lance cuddles into Keith and hums at the feeling his hand running through his hair. "At least he keeps you safe." Lance turns and kisses Keith's collarbone then smiles. "Ever think your mate would be a thief who got trapped in one of your treasure chest" he asks teasingly.

Keith chuckles. "I never thought it was a possibility before, but I'm glad that's how we met." He nuzzled into Lance's hair while continuing to comb. "I'm not the nicest person in public."

Lance laughs in response to Keith and smiles at him deviously. "I think you're _very_ nice." He winks then laughs before cuddling and rubbing his head against Keith's hand.

Keith blushes despite not knowing what Lance is referring to. "I burned someone's hair for just talking nonsense and insisting that he is right," he argued as if he needed to prove how mean he can be.

Lance bursts out laughing, just imagining it. "That's so great!" He exclaims through his laughter. "Bet he shut up after that huh?"

Keith laughs too. "He starts screaming and ran to the bathroom. He never stood within a 10 feet parameter of me after that."

Lance keeps laughing, a little more as he pictures a person running away from Keith. He looms up at Keith and squishes his cheeks between his hands. "It's hard for me to see you as scary anymore."

"Am I just a big softy to you now?" Keith asks with a teasing tone. "Rawr." He tries to nip Lance's nose but it held back by the hands still on his cheeks.

Lance laughs and moves his nose to meet Keith's then leans in and kisses him before wrapping his arms around him. When he pulls away, Lance's eyes are soft. "Nope. You're just perfect and I know you wouldn't hurt me." He chuckles quietly. "But maybe i should make sure never to make you mad." He playfully covers his hair with his arms.

Keith gazes at Lance with loving eyes. He reaches a had up to twirl some of Lance's hair that's still uncovered. "Your hair is too nice to burn. Your punishment would be a lot of bite marks," he says as he trails his hand across Lance's neck and down his chest.

Lance shivers just imagining it and closes his eyes to focus on the touch more. Smirking, eyes still closed, he chuckles. "Maybe I _should_ make you mad then." He trails off with a hmmmm. Opening his eyes again, Lance smiles at Keith. "What to dooo..."

"Hmmmmn... I'm not sure. You don't mind walking around, making it extremely obvious who you belong to?" Keith trails his hand back up Lance's chest. His cheeks are slightly pink but his voice doesn't have any hint of embarrassment. "Everyone will imagine what I do to you."

Lance smiles and shakes his head. "Lead me on a leash and collar for all I care. I'm yours." He blushes a bit but looks up and pouts to beg for a kiss. "Let them imagine. Make them jealous."

"All mine," he whispers as he pulls Lance into a kiss. His hand cradles the back of Lance's head and the other one is on the small of his back.

Lance melts into the kiss as though Keith saying that is somehow more meaningful this time. He scoots closer and hugs Keith, running his hands over the base of his wings. "All yours." He agrees before going in for another kiss.

Keith hums into the kiss and starts to grip onto Lance's hair. He sticks out his tongue to lick Lance's lip, to which he is given access immediately. He runs his tongue against Lance's teeth before starting to wrestle.

Lance's eyes roll back a bit at the tug on his hair and he hungrily kisses back. He presses himself against Keith and scratches his nails over Keith's back. Smirking into the kiss from keith's reaction, Lance looks into his eyes and sighs.

Keith moans shakily, retracting his tongue a little. After a little bit longer, he pulls away to breath. "You like my back too much," he whines softly.

"No, i like your reaction to much." Lance says with a smirk. He then sits up and smiles at him with a sigh. "Should we eat? Maybe go for a swim. I-IF YOU LIKE TO SWIM!"

Keith chuckles and pets Lance's arm. "It's okay. I will swim with you, I'm not scared of it." He kisses Lance's cheek. "What would you like to eat? I could go hunt if you want something new."

Lance blushes and smiles. "Is it weird that I want to watch you hunt?" He grins and nuzzles Keith. "If that's ok with you anyway."

"That fine," Keith smiles and nuzzles back. "Is there any animal would you like to eat? I can get anything you want."

"I just wanna watch you be awesome." He admits bashfully. "Should I make a..." Lance stops himself from finishing that sentence. "You probably just use your fire huh?"

"Sometimes I eat them raw. Did you want to make your own fire?" Keith tilts his head to the side. "You can if you want to. Your fire probably won't burn as much as much as mine." When he uses his fire in hunting, it's to kill the animal or make it easier to tear into rather than to cook it.

Lance perks up and nods. "I would love to be helpful." He laughs before hurrying toward the cave entrance. Looking back to make sure Keith is following, Lance smiles at him. "Is there a better place to make the fire."

Midway on the way out of the cave, Keith transforms into a dragon. "Maybe sand? That way nothing else can catch on fire." He remembers accidentally setting a tree on fire once and Shiro rushing to put it out. "You sure you don't have any idea what you want to try?"

"Ummmm..." Lance thinks about it and shrugs. "Not a rat?" He laughs and heads toward the beach, where there is plenty of sand. "Whatever you see is fine with me."

Keith quickly moves in front of Lance and sits down. "There's a lot that is not a rat," he laughs. "Would you like to see a quick hunt or a battle?" Most animals can't actually fight against a dragon but the bigger animals aren't just a quick snatch.

Lance has started to dig a hole when Keith asks him. Pausing to think, he finally pouts. "Well I don't want you to get hurt." He looks at him with a cute smile then goes back to prepping the spot for the fire.

Keith smiles and waits. He sways his tail, playing with sand a little. He wants Lance to actually watch him catch but he still doesn't have the animal picked out. Lance has already eaten the animals that don't fight back. Keith looks to the trees. _Maybe a bear. They are pretty easy to kill._

Lance gets the fire set up and turns to watch Keith with a smile. As he waits, Lance starts to rub the sticks together to get the heat building.

With a very slight pout, Keith stands up and shakes the sand out of his scales. "I'm going to go find a bear," he says as softly as he can in this form as he gently boops Lance with his snout.

Lance smiles and boops back with a laugh. "A...bear? You'll be okay right?" He asks with a severe tone of worry.

"I'll be okay. Their claws aren't sharp enough to really hurt," Keith replies. In dragon form, emotions don't come out through their tone very well unless it's anger but he was trying to be comforting. He circles around Lance, which causes his tail to graze against the human before he walks into the tree line.

Lance smiles and runs his fingers along Keith's tail and smiles. "Well, if you'll be ok, then I'm fine with whatever. Though I have no idea how to prepare a bear over a fire." He laughs a bit then sighs as he watches Keith with lovestruck eyes.

It doesn't take long for Keith to find a bear. They aren't used to having to hide. As quietly as he can, he creeps up behind one. Once the bear turns, Keith rawrs and lets out some fire. The bear roars in pain and turns away from Keith. He takes this change to jump and dig his front claws into the bear's neck. The bear struggles and tries to claw at Keith. It dies seconds later and Keith drops it. He picks it up with his mouth and starts walking back to Lance, tail wagging.

Lance had watched the whole thing and swears it was like watching a rabbit try to fend off a lion or something. He can't help but be amazed by what he sees. When Keith comes back, Lance laughs then shivers. "Remind me never to piss you off." He laughs

Keith chuckles as he gently placed the bear in front of the fire. "I don't think you ever will anyways." He boops Lance again before starting to cut up the bear.

Lance watches Keith, oddly unaffected by the gruesome scene and makes sure to keep the fire going. Once the bear is prepped, he starts to cook it. "We should clean the felt and make a...rug or something."

"Would you like that? I can wash it," Keith offers. There will be holes in the neck but it's not like they need the head.

Lance thinks about it a bit then smiles and nods. "That would be fun." He decides before scooting up to Keith and nuzzling him. "Add another fluffy treasure to your collection."

Keith smiles and nuzzles back. "Then I shall wash it before we go." He assumes Lance wouldn't want to go in water that had fur washed in it right before. He also doesn't want to leave Lance's side right now.

Lance nods and watches the meat before flipping it again. "I have no idea how to cook this." He admits with a laugh.

Keith chuckles. "So long as your human body can digest it." He sniffs the meat. It's not as cooked as the lamb from the restaurant but it's close.

"I just...how do you eat this?" He laughs then rotates it again. Once done, he looks back to Keith and nuzzles his nose into him.

"Bite it? I can cut it up smaller for you," Keith says as he holds his claws over the meat.

Lance shakes his head and picks some up. Looking it over for a bit, he finally takes a bite of it and chews for a while before nodding. "Its different. But better than most meat I've had." He chuckles then takes another bite.

Keith chuckles and takes a big bite. He swallows without much chewing and then licks his teeth. "So bear is your favorite meat now?" He asks with a smile. It's something he can specially get for Lance.

"Well, I haven't had a lot of the normal stuff, but it's better than leftovers and rat meat." Lance laughs then takes another bite. "And i like it better than the meat we got from the restaurant at least."

"That's good. It's something only I can get you," Keith says with pride. He takes another bite before laying his head on the ground. He watches Lance continue to eat with a loving gaze. He's so focused on Lance that he doesn't notice the presence of other human on the other side of the waterfall.

Lance cuddles into Keith as he eats and looks into Keith's eyes with a smile. "I'm pretty pumped that I got to be with you. I'm having the literal time of my life." He hugs into Keith's leg and kisses his neck.

Keith's chest rumbles. He shakes his scales, knowing Lance will feel it. With a huge smile, he curls himself around Lance. His tail lays next to his side while Lance is in the middle of the circle.

Lance cuddles into his tail and runs his hands along the scales of Keith's tail while eating. He sighs then looks up at Keith and blows him a kiss.

Keith's scales shimmer a bit. Not being able to blow a kiss, he lets out a small amount of fire in a shape of a heart.

Lance gets visibly giddy when Keith makes the heart of fire. He tosses the food he can't finish back to the fire and bounces up. Being too happy to sit still, he starts to playfully dance for Keith. "Dance with me!"

Obviously not being affected by the fire, Keith the food Lance tossed. He then shifts into his two legged form and starts to dance with Lance.

Lance leads Keith in a sloppy dance, oblivious to the people sneaking their way toward them. He sings a song he was taught as a child before leaning in to kiss Keith.

Just as their lips touch, Keith jerks his head back and screams. He got hit in the back by a lighting bolt that was supposed to paralyze him. The hunters underestimated Keith or they had forgotten that dragon stones don't last forever outside their element. Keith growls as he turns around. Three out of five hunters slip into the water.

Lance jumps back, not exactly being much good at fighting. Instinctively, he looks around for somewhere to run and hide. When that fails, he just nervously looks around and watches Keith. "Keith! Be careful!" He shouts

Keith thumps his tail on the ground angrily. Still in his current form, he hunches over and breathes fire that reaches to the humans that stayed on land. They were prepared and used water stones to shield themselves.

There were very few things Lance knew to fight back, but watch Keith made him nervous, so Lance waits until he thinks he's unnoticed and sneaks behind one of the enemies. He boxes their ears and slams them to the ground, using all his force to grab the stone. While he didnt know how to use it, the thought it best to keep it away. Then, he grabs a stone and chucks it toward the hand of the one fighting Keith, hoping he might knock the other stone down.

Keith turns his attention to the other two on their side. One is preparing a giant wave while the other is doing their best to distract. The distractor falters which gives Keith the change to charge at the one preparing the wave. He pins that human down with his claws on either side of their neck and he knocks the distracter down with his tail. Across the water, the two are preparing another attack.

Lance knocks the one he'd been attacking unconscious then looks to the ones about to attack from the water and screams at them. He jumps into the water and hurries toward them. When he surfaces, Lance sees them about to attack Keith and panics. In doing so, he makes a line of water shoot out and attack the two of them. The two scream and one accidentally releases their already somewhat charged attack into the water.

Keith just finished dealing with his two when he hears the guys scream. He looks up just in time to see Lance get shocked. "Lance!"

Lance clenches his jaw and the fist holding the stone as his vision goes strange from being shocked. He thinks he hears Keith so he looks over to reassure him but his body isn't really agreeing with him so instead he struggles to stay afloat. "Don't worry about me." He chokes out before trying to hurry back to shore. "Take care of them first."

Keith jumps and takes off towards the two lightning stone holders. In rage, he unintentionally transforms back into a dragon mid flight. He uses his fire to burn one's face and his claws dig into the other man's shoulder. He lets out a loud rawr, just in case there was anymore humans hiding.

Lance makes it to shore, but only barely. He hadn't realized how badly he'd been hit, but already it was beginning to heal. When he sees Keith go back to his full dragon form, Lance admires him in amazement. He admires him despite his blurry vision.

Not wanting to kill humans in front of Lance, Keith leaves the human's arm attached. He gently takes the two lighting stones before rushing to Lance. It does make him slightly happy that he can hear the humans running away while still screaming in pain. "Are you okay?" He bites into the back of Lance's clothing and helps him get further onto land.

"I'm fine." Lance nods and cuddles into Keith. "Does...does that happen often?" He flinches as he tries to sit up.

"Not at all," Keith says as he transforms to help Lance. "Are you sure you're okay? I need to contact Lotor to collect these guys, I can ask him to bring healers."

Lance shakes his head and grabs where it hurts most. "I think I'm more surprised than anything, you know?" He smiles and cuddles into Keith and whines a little. "Are you ok?"

"I'm okay." Keith cuddles Lance back as his purple earring glows. He flinches when he tries to move his wings. The adrenaline is no longer lessening the pain. "I'll be okay. Lighting doesn't damage me as it would others."

Lance sees Keith flinch and sits up to go over to it. He touches Keith's cheek before going over and running his fingers around the mark and pouting. "Let me try to clean it." Without letting Keith argue, Lance goes over and fills his hands with water and pours it over the wound. The burn was already lessening from the lightning. "It doesn't look too bad." He leans in and kisses just above the wound. "I'm sorry."

Keith's wings twitch when the water hits his burn. "It's not your fault. You didn't know you were there." He rubs his tail against Lance comfortingly. "You're probably more injured than me."

Lance shakes his head." I feel almost fine now." He carefully hugs Keith and checks the burn for any signs of something that could be worse. "I don't think yours will last too long either." His voice is quiet but he smiles confidently before walking back over to the front of Keith. "At least I still have this?" He holds out the water stone. "What even is it."

Keith frowns and shows the two lighting stones he still has in his hands. "These are dragon stones... None magic ones can use elemental magic with these."

Lance looks down to them then gasps and drops them as if he had hurt the dragons themselves. "So they - those people..." He looks up to Keith with big, sorrowful eyes, "Did they..."

Keith matches Lance's sorrowful look. "They did... " He rests his forehead against Lance's.

Lance grabs Keith in a tight hug. "Im so sorry. I didn't realize." He grips him tighter. "So they were...really trying to...get your stone weren't they?" He cuddles into him and frowns. "I wish I could protect you better."

Keith nuzzles into Lance's neck. "It's okay. You've never had to fight against magic before." He gently places the two lightning stones next to the water one. "If you want, I'm sure they wouldn't mind being in good hands."

Lance looks them over for a second and frowns. "I guess I could keep them." He sighs then nuzzles into Keith. "At least I could keep them safe." Gently, he places a kiss on Keith's neck. "We should...probably head to the cave though huh?"

"Yeah..." Keith's gaze trails to the three knocked out men. "We should wait for Lotor to come and get these guys though. We can wash the bear fur in the meantime." The guys won't be waking up for a while.

Lance clings tighter to Keith and shakes his head. "Is it ok if we just cuddle?" He asks quietly, not wanting to admit how shaky he is now that the adrenaline has worn off. His hand grips Keith's tight and he kisses him on the cheek. "I was...really afraid something was going to happen to you and I would have been helpless to you."

Keith pulls Lance onto his lap. "I'm sorry you had to witness this firsthand," he whispers as he combs his hand through Lance's hair. "I should have been more careful..."

"It's not your fault!" Lance nearly shouts the words the instant Keith says them. He jolts up and grabs Keith's face in his hands. "It's not your fault. I'm not mad at you. I just...I want to protect you." He says this while staring into Keith's eyes. "Because...I love you." He looks down and sighs before looking back up to Keith and giving him a gentle kiss. "It's not your fault."

Keith smiles softly. "Thank you." He pulls Lance into another soft kiss. "At least it gives me ideas of what else to buy you," he says with a teasing tone. He thumps his tail on the ground repeatedly.

Lance smiles but can't help but pout a bit as Keith speaks. He grabs up the stones and holds them close to his chest with a sigh. When he looks back up, Lance is frowning. "That's stupid. This whole...killing for...these."

Keith stops thumping his tail and his expression saddens. "Yeah..."

As if to change the subject, three dragons are incoming fast with multiple people on each if their backs. On the middle one, you can see long white hair flowing behind the front rider. Lance sees them coming and cuddles into Keith for a second before standing up and waving when Lotor lands.

Lotor gets off his dragon and rushes over to Keith and Lance. "You were attacked?" He asks frantically. "I should have been here." His words growl from his mouth.

"It's alright. You didn't know." Keith slowly stands up. "There was five. Two got away with major injuries. They didn't escape with any of the stones they used." There could have been other stones hidden on them.

The other riders hop off their dragon and tie up the three unconscious men before searching their clothes. They find small weapons. One of them brings the two other water stones and hands them to Lotor.

Lance watches as Lotor looks over Keith's wound with curious eyes. After speaking with the riders, Lotor turns back to Keith. "Was this from today's attack?" He questions before looking down at the stones and shaking his head. "And did you desire to try to find the kin of these?"

Keith nods then asks, "Will you allow Lance to keep two?" He can see Lance's expression and knows he wants to ask something. "I don't want Lance defenseless with such a chance of them coming back."

"He can." Lotor nods and looks Lance over. "It would seem your mate did well to fend for himself?" He asks curiously.

Meanwhile, Lance scoots closer to Keith, trying to wrap his head around everything. "What will you do with the others?

"He did," Keith answers while hugging Lance close. "For dragons, the kin of the dragon are the ones who bury their dragon stone. Some have special rituals but all dragons should only be buried in their territory."

Lance cuddles into Keith and holds up the stones. "Should we take them to the families? Er, can we?" He looks up to Keith with pleading puppy eyes.

Lotor watches them interact with a small smile. "I'm happy to see you have found a human who cares for dragons as they would humans." He says at last.

Keith smiles lovingly at Lance. He gives Lotor a quick glance and his smile widens. "I'm a very lucky dragon." He boops his nose against Lance's. "Do you want it to just be the two of us or shall we go with the group?"

Lance smiles to Keith then looks over to Lotor when Keith does. When Keith speaks, Lance blushes a bit. This only deepens when he boops his nose. "I'm not that good." He smiles at Keith bashfully. "I think I'm way more lucky." He teases before listening to the question and thinking. Finally, he shrugs. "Either way is fine. What do you think is best?"

"The quickest way would be to split up," Lotor interrupts, "My group would split into two and we'll find the two water dragons' kin. Unless of course, you would like to meet all of them."

Lance thinks it over then shakes his head. "I think...i just want to make sure they all get home." He looks over to Lotor and smiles. "So if you are willing to help I think that would be best." He smiles then cuddles into Keith before frowning. "Should I ask for permission to use these? I mean, it seems wrong to return some home and not the others."

"If you would like to find the kins and ask them, you may but it's not required. I'm sure they would gladly give you permission." Lotor waves and starts to walk towards the three other dragons. "If we find the kin for your water stone, I'll tell Keith where they are in case you still wish to find them." He hands one stone off to a different rider before hopping onto the middle dragon. Keith covers Lance with his wings as all three dragon take off, causing strong wind that has Keith struggling to keep his feet planted.

Lance clings to Keith as the wind moves them. Once they are alone again, Lance continues clinging to him. "All of this is so surreal." He voices quietly.

Keith chuckles and kisses Lance's cheek. "I still wonder how not all humans have at least seen a dragon fly over their town."

"Humans are oblivious." Lance answers quietly. "They also think dragons are mean and scary." He frowns saying it. "And yet they are the ones killing dragons for stones." Though he doesn't mean to, Lance growls the words then kisses Keith's neck. "I'm glad i was able to meet you." He smiles at Keith then boops his nose.

Keith smiles too. "I'm glad too." He kisses Lance. "You saved my life today. Thank you," he whispers before kissing Lance again. It hadn't really hit him earlier that if Lance hadn't attacked, he could have been overpowered.

Lance freezes and looks up to Keith with panic in his eyes. "I-I did?" He swallows hard and kisses back before grabbing Keith in a protective hug. "I'm so glad I didn't stay frozen then." He responds, voice quivering.

Keith hugs Lance tight with one arm while the other combs through Lance's hair. He gives feather light kisses and boops all over Lance's face. "You were amazing," he whispers. Even though hunters collect dragon stones for a living, they aren't easy to use. It takes more than just concentration.

Lance lightens up with each kiss until finally letting a cute, bashful laugh free. "Not as amazing as you." Lance responds teasingly. "You are seriously incredible. All I did was freak out and hope to distract them."

"That's still amazing." Keith gives Lance one more kiss. His eyes trail down to the stones. "Do you want to find their kins now or would you like to rest more?"

Lance laughs a bit. "Amazing." He shakes his head and laughs more. "I think you're way too nice with your words." Holding the stones close, Lance frowns. "Do you feel up to it? You got hurt more than i did."

"I'm up for it. It doesn't really hurt anymore, just sore." Keith pulls away from the hug and turns to show his healed back. There is still a mark but it's not visible unless you're actually looking for it.

Lance looks it over and smiles. "You heal so fast." He says in amazement." Leaning in, he kisses just above it then bounds back in front of Keith to give him a huge hug and kiss. "Then let's go find their kin."

Keith smiles and transforms. Lance is now hugging his snout. He playfully huffs smoke that completely covers Lance for a good two seconds.

Lance laughs and waves his hands around to try to get the smoke out of his face. "What was that for?!" He shouts playfully. After booping him again, Lance climbs onto his back. "You know where to go?"

Keith chuckles before answering the second question. "Lightning dragons tend to live on taller mountains. They like being as close to the clouds as possible." He flaps his wings a few times before they're airborne.

Lance nods and cuddles against Keith, holding the stones carefully as though they might slip. "That makes sense I suppose." He remembers Shiro and perks up. "Is it the same for your space dragon friend?"

"Shiro... Is a bit different." Keith is trying to hold in a laugh. "Yes, he prefers to stay as high as possible but Matt puts lots of those star decorations in his house so Shiro doesn't mind being on ground level."

"Matt is his mate right? Or just contractor?" He isn't sure if he read their actions wrong. Lance cuddles into Keith as he watches the mountains get closer to view. "I'm glad I'm so close to you. It's colder here."

"They are mates," Keith confirms. They can both see a few dragons on the mountain side. The dragons have a mix of yellow and super light purple scales. They all watch with caution as Keith lands.

"I thought so." He smiles, thinking back to how they acted. Then Lance sees the dragons get cautious and his heart aches for them. He climbs down off of Keith and looks them over with a nervous smile before turning back to Keith for reassurance. After being given the go ahead, Lance bows his head and clears his throat. "I-I have something that-that..." He trails off. _What do you say? Something that use to be one of you?_ after a pause, Lance holds out the stone. "They attacked us and I wanted you to have it back."

One of the dragons step forward and sniffs the stones. Another dragon comes up and nuzzles into the first. "Thank you," The first dragon says," I deeply appreciate you bringing back our boys."

"Our babies," the second dragon mumbles sadly. Their voice was still deep but it had a more feminine feeling to it.

"They- they were your children?" Lance swallows hard and cant hide his sadness. "I'm really sorry." He holds them out for the dragons to take. But, something in him makes Lance dart up and hug them as best he can with them both in dragon form. He goes from one to the other then looks up. "Is there anything else I can do?"

Both dragons freeze from shock, making Keith smile. "Bringing them back is more than enough," the mother says once the shock wears off," We should be asking if you need anything. I'm assuming they were after your mate over there." Keith takes that as his cue to step up next to Lance.

Lance looks at them confused. "They...were, yes." Lance's voice goes quiet and he bows his head. "I'm...really sorry about everything." He grips Keith tighter then smiles back up at them. "I just wish i could protect you all." He laughs a bit. "Not that I'm strong or anything. But...all the dragons I've met have been nice."

"You are a very kind hearted human," the father says. The two parents share a glance before turning back to Lance. "We know that you would take great care of him, so we would like you to keep one. They were young but I know it would make them happy to be able to protect both of you."

Lance grips the stone given back to him close to his heart and nods. "I swear to you, he will stay safe." He feels his eyes watering and blushes before running back to Keith and burying his face into him. "Why am I so emotional?" He half laughs and half whines.

Keith smiles softly and curls around Lance. "It's okay," he whispers. The parent lightning dragons smile at the couple before leaving to go inform the others and prepare for the burial.

Lance boops him and smiles. He watches the dragons leave and sighs. "Can we go home?" He asks quietly, clearly still feeling torn up.

"Yeah, we'll go home," Keith says just as quietly. He nuzzles Lance before allowing to be climbed on. Once Lance is comfortable, Keith spreads his wings and jump.

Lance is atypically quiet on their trip home. He holds the stone close and cuddles against Keith. Once or twice he nuzzles against him or boops him.

Keith understands what Lance is feeling right now so he doesn't bother trying to start a conversation. Not long after, they arrive home. He doesn't give Lance time to climb off before he slowly walks into the cave.

Lance waits until they are all the way in to climb down and cuddle into their comfortable bed. He holds his arms out and pouts. "Come cuddle?"

He transforms into his hybrid form and cuddles close. "I will always cuddle with you." He pulls Lance close and nuzzles into the brown hair.

Lance holds Keith close, as though afraid he might lose him. After a second, he starts to kiss Keith's neck. "I was so scared." He laughs at last, albeit nervously. "I saw you get hurt and felt the whole world freeze." His voice cracks before finally trailing off.

"I know what you mean." Keith kisses Lance's temple. "I was so scared when you got hit." He hugs Lance tighter.

"We're pretty hopeless huh?" Lance says teasingly then kisses Keith' neck again. "Maybe we should just find a hidden island and hide away." He is kidding which shows by his smile but the sigh that follows shows he really is worried. "I don't want to see you get hurt again."

Keith lifts Lance's head so he can boop Lance. "We could go find a tropical island." He knows Lance was kidding but it's still a nice thought. "I don't wanna see you hurt again either. I wanna keep you as far away from hunters as possible."

Lance smiles at the boop. "They weren't after me." He pouts then kisses Keith more. "But a tropical island sounds pretty amazing." His smile grows. "Especially if it was just the two of us." He props himself up on his elbows and sighs. "I would love it. Never have to worry again. Spend every waking moment trying to figure out how to spoil a dragon."

Keith's scales shimmers and his smile grows. At this rate, he might actually find an island for them. "We can spend most of the day on the sand and not care about falling asleep there, gather fruit together and anything else we want."

Lance's smile grows and his eyes sparkle. "I can cook fish over a fire and we can make hammocks out of huge tropical leaves!" He laughs happily. "But we'd still have this." He pets the bed then nuzzles into Keith's chest before laughing again.

"I might be able to find lava and make you a lava rock necklace." Keith runs his thumb down Lance's neck. "It would look amazing on you."

"But would that mean we live near a volcano? Wouldn't that be risky?" He asks with eyes closed as Keith runs his thumb over his neck. "You think everything will look amazing on me." His voice is quieter this time and Lance's cheeks are tinted pink. "I'm really beginning to think you're just biased."

"We could live near one that doesn't erupt but we don't have to if you don't want to. I know volcanoes are dangerous and most stay away from them." Keith doesn't mention the fact that volcanoes are fire dragon's preferred area. "And I'm not biased, my eyes are just open to how amazing you look in everything."

Lance watches Keith speak and somehow manages to read between the lines. _most people_ he hears. And remembering that dragons have territories, Lance can't help but pounce on top of Keith and smile. "You can just _say_ you want to live near one you know." He teases before realizing Keith had complimented him again and blushing. "That's still biased." He mumbles before shaking his head and looking down at Keith with a smile. "At least I feel the same about anything you wear." His smile grows devious. "Or don't wear. I like that too."

Keith is caught off guard by Lance's pounce, being pushed flat on his back. At the compliment, he blushes and folds his arms as if to cover his bare chest. "I don't want to live anywhere you don't," he mumbles.

"Good thing I'm willing to go to the ends of the earth with you then, Hm?" Lance whispers quietly before leaning down and kissing Keith's neck. Speaking in his mate's ear, Lance adds, " especially if it means you stay safe."

Keith melts at that. He unfolds his arms to wrap around Lance. "Why are you so perfect for me?" He whispers. One hand slides up to comb into the hair covering the back of Lance's neck.

"Because...you're a dragon and apparently I'm a good treasure." He teases a bit before nuzzling into Keith's hand with a smile. "I just...you make me feel like I matter. And I want to do the same for you." He voices quietly as he soaks in Keith's touch with closed eyes.

Keith gazes lovingly as he moves his hand to cup Lance's cheek. Not being able to form a proper reply in his head, he leans up and kisses his mate.

Lance melts at the kiss, not having expected it. He kisses back and grabs Keith in a hug. His chest swells with powerful emotions so he touches his chest to Keith's as if trying to share the feeling with him.

Keith is already overflowing with his own emotions. He can feel Lance's heartbeat against his chest and wonders if Lance can feel his. Lightly, he scratches the back of Lance's scalp.

Lance smiles into the kiss a little as Keith scratches his scalp then pulls away to purr playfully. He nuzzles into the feeling before laying his head onto Keith's chest and happily nuzzling into him. "I love you. So much."

"I love you so much too," Keith says as he combs his hand through Lance's hair, still lightly scratching the scalp. "My most precious treasure," he whispers.

Lance can't help but giggle at that and crack a huge smile. He props his head up to look into Keith's eyes and the amount of love he has swimming in his ocean colored irises is overwhelming. "So, when do we move?" Teasing after a moment of silence, Lance's smile only grows.

Keith has the softest expression. He wishes they could stay frozen like this forever. "As soon as we find our dream island." He knows that they should tell everyone about it before they actually move but that can be dealt with later.

Lance sighs when he looks Keith over then angles himself so he can run his hand through Keith's hair. "Shouldn't be too hard, right. Find an island with a volcano. Move there." His smile grows as he looks back into Keith's eyes. "You'll be there with me so it'll be my dream come true anyway."

Keith leans against Lance's hand, chasing it as it runs through his hair. Lance's smile is contagious, making Keith's smile also grows as he gets lost in Lance's eyes. "Just the two of us, our own little world."

"Sounds perfect." Lance hums before leaning back down to meet Keith's lips once more. When he pulls away, he can't help but yawn. Shaking his head, as though to wake himself up, Lance rubs his eyes. "And giant leaf hammocks, right?" He asks sleepily.

Keith gently leads Lance's head back down onto his chest. "Yeah. We'll have a giant leaf hammock." _Whatever those are._ "Everything you want," he whispers.

Lance yawns again and lays down carefully cuddling into Keith. "The most important part is you." He says before slipping off to sleep.

Keith yawns once Lance is asleep. It's not long after that he too is asleep.


	7. Chapter 7

Lance finally gets up some time later but refuses to move. He cuddles against Keith and sighs as he listens to his heart beat. This is something he could get use to each and every day.

As if sensing Lance is awake, Keith moves his hand from the boy's back to comb through his brown hair. Keith's eyes are still closed and gives no other signs of being awake.

Lance can't help but smile at this. He feels Keith's touch and cuddles into the feeling before trailing gentle kisses over his chest. He kisses so softly, it could almost be mistaken for butterflies

It takes quite a few kisses before a smile breaks onto his face. Hoping Lance hasn't noticed it yet, he barely opens his eyes to peak down at his mate.

Lance doesn't notice at first, but as he trails up Keith's chest toward his neck, he realizes Keith's eyes are open and laughs. "How long have you been watching me?" His voice is quiet and his cheeks are a bit pink upon being caught.

"A while," Keith chuckles and kisses Lance. "You're so adorable." Remembering that Lance liked it last time, he lightly scratches the scalp. "Any cravings for breakfast?"

"How was that adorable?" He pouts a bit then sighs and relaxes into the scratch on his scalp. "And I'm sure you on an island is out of the picture, yes?"

"Hmn? I'm not sure what you mean, do you want to look for an island right now?"

"I-no. Ugh." Lance cant get himself to explain himself so he just blushes and shakes his head. "How about some fruit?" He mumbles at last

Keith smiles. "We can go pick some fresh ones if you want." He doesn't remember how much is left in their food stash.

"I'm sure what we have will be fine." Lance, rather than getting up however, cuddles into Keith more and kisses his neck a few times. "I also don't need to head that way right away. Unless you do." He speaks between kisses.

"I do not," Keith says quietly as he tilts his head to give Lance more access. His wings twitch a bit, feeling a bit stiff. Maybe he'll ask Lance for message later. He also just wants more of Lance's nonsexual touches.

Noticing the way Keith moves, Lance looks at him. "Do you need me to move?" He asks before propping himself up to a seated position. When he looks down at Keith, his smile grows somehow softer and he sighs before running his hand through Keith's hair.

Keith slowly sits up and stretches what he can in that position. "My muscles are just a bit stiff." Probably from the fact that he isn't used to sleeping constantly in this form. It's not that the fluffy bed doesn't help, just pent up from the nights before the giant fluffy bed.

Lance watches Keith stretch then smiles and scoots behind Keith. He doesn't have much knowledge in massaging, but he knows what feels good to him so he does his best to mock that. "Well, maybe this will help." Lance hims as he massages as best he can. Occasionally, he will lean in and plant a gentle kiss on Keith's scales. When he gets to the base of Keith's wings, Lance seems nervous, as though afraid he might hurt the spot from yesterday even though he can't see it anymore.

Keith is secretly glad Lance can't see his expression right now. He is in utter bliss. His eyes are half closed and his exhales are long. Pleasant shivers run down his spine with the kiss. When Lance rubs the base of his wing, his mouth slightly opens. He peaks over his shoulder to see Lance's nervous expression, explaining why his hands have stopped. "What's wrong?" He asks, not realizing that Lance's hands are near where he was hit yesterday.

Lance sees Keith look back and pouts. "I just...don't want to hurt you." He says sadly. "Does it still hurt?" To Lance, Keith's soreness was likely because of the fight yesterday.

Keith had also forgotten he was actually injured from the hit. "It doesn't hurt at all." He twists his body to give Lance a quick peck on the lips. "I don't think I would have been able to lay down on my back if it still did."

"I-I guess that makes sense." He looks bashful, as though ashamed he hadn't thought of that. The small kiss makes him want more kisses, but Lance want a to help Keith so he decides to kiss the spot between Keith's wings before starting to massage it. He attempts to massage the base of his wings too, hoping it might alleviate some of the pain.

Keith hunches over a bit as Lance really starts to give the base of his wings attention. He bites his lip in order to try and keep himself quiet but a moan still escapes. He instantly becomes a blushing mess. It just feels so good, even without sexual intentions.

Lance blushes too then can't help but laugh a but before leaning into Keith and hugging him. With a teasing smile, he kisses Keith's cheek. "Certainly must feel quite a bit better." His voice is quiet and playful before going back to massaging, half because he was genuinely enjoying giving Keith a massage and half to watch Keith get riled up.

Keith's blush darkens at the kiss. Now he's really trying to hold back all noise. His mouth is still parted in silent moans but a few manage to slip out.

Lance's smile only grows as he kneads the area so clearly sensitive of Keith's back. He works his hands down his back and toward the tail he enjoys chasing after his hands in a trail of warm kisses.

Slowly, Keith becomes unable to hold back his voice. He moans more and more as Lance travels down. His tail is already shivering and swaying from the pleasure.

Lance cant hold back his laughter. It's quiet and warm, but a laugh nonetheless. Driving his mate mad like this is actually quite fun. He massages part of the way down Keith's tail before sliding his hands back up Keith's back in one fluid motion before slipping over his shoulders and pushing his chest against Keith's back. "I never thought I'd be so good at massages." He whispers teasingly with his lips so close to Keith's ear he can likely feel the breath of his words.

Keith whines as more shivers run down his spine. He ducks his head and curls his tail onto his lap, looking adorably embarrassed. He would use his wings too if Lance wasn't so close.

Lance kisses Keith's neck and smiles. He trails one hand back to the weak spot on Keith's back and keeps the other wrapped around him. "No sulking." He purrs in Keith's ear before massaging his back again. "I don't have to stop." He smirks, pretending that is why Keith was pouting.

Keith moans and lifts his head back up. "Lance." He leans away but Lance's arm keeps him from going too far.

"You haven't forgotten my name." Lance teases, not slowing any of his motions. "That's good." He adds before slipping his other hand into Keith's hair and scratching the scalp there.

Keith's moans gets mixed with the rumbling in his chest. He wants to face Lance, not knowing how much longer he can remain sitting without a lot of support. His wings would be in the way if he turned around so he shifts to human form. Before Lance could say anything, he turns and leans his head on his mate's shoulder.

Lance chuckles and wraps his arms around Keith before kissing the top of his head. "Isn't being like this more dangerous?" He asks before running his hands up and down Keith's back. Using his nose, Lance gets Keith to look up at him. "You are so gorgeous." He whispers before dragging his nails down Keith's back and raising an eyebrow.

Keith's moan gets louder. He had forgotten how much more sensitive his back in this form. "Lance," he whines as he gazes into into the sea blue eyes. "Nooo."

Lance smirks and stops, likely way too abruptly. "If you insist." He sighs then kisses Keith's neck. "Should I go get breakfast instead?" He stretches and starts to stand, half hoping Keith would tackle him.

Keith quickly shakes himself out of his daze and grabs onto Lance's pants. "You're not fair," He whines as he pulls his mate back down. As if worried Lance would try yo get up again, Keith climbs on top of him.

"I only did as you asked." Lance admits, doing his best to hold back his smile. He feels his breath hitch when Keith climbs on top of him but keeps himself level headed. "What's not fair about that?"

"You know that's not what I meant." Keith nuzzles into Lance's neck. He then back up to meet eye to eye. "Don't leave," he practically begs with puppy dog eyes.

"I'll never leave." Lance coos as he runs his hand through Keith's hair and smiles. "But if that's not what you meant..." He playfully touches his chin, "then what _did_ you mean?"

Keith whines and pouts. He nuzzles back into Lance's neck. "Don't stop," he whines as he presses his chest more against Lance's.

Lance smiles and leans down, pretending he's going to give a gentle kiss. But the instant his lips meet Keith's it is shockingly impatient. He forces his tongue quickly into Keith's clearly willing mouth before sliding his hands to Keith's back and digging his nails into the sensitive areas of his back. "Like that?" He asks after pulling just far enough from Keith's lips that he would have to chase them.

Keith lets out a needy moan when Lance pulls away. Hands on Lance's shoulders, he weakly tries to pull himself higher in order to chase. "Kiss," he whines right before reaching his goal. His lips are already parted.

Lance kisses him before slowly pushing back into Keith until he is climbing on top of Keith, successfully pinning his hands against Keith's back. He kisses him and digs his nails into the sensitive areas before starting to grind against him.

Keith moans louder and grinds back. He tries to moan Lance's name but it gets muffled in the kiss. He is incredibly hard and he can feel the heat starting to build.

Lance practically rips off Keith's shirt to be able to play with him more at Keith's sounds. His hands attack Keith's back and his mouth finds one nipple to kiss and suck on it. He honestly hadn't planned on doing anything this early but damn...look at how sexy Keith is and the bulge against him is beyond tempting.

Keith throws his head back and moans louder. He keeps grinding himself against Lance. "Lance," he moans," Close." It's insane how sensitive his back is.

Lance pulls back for a second he looks Keith over and realizes if he finishes like this, their clothes will be messy. "Not yet." He breathes. Not wanting Keith to feel bad, he scratches down his back then trails his tongue down Keith's chest and over his stomach. Using his teeth to pull down Keith's pants, Lance looks back up to Keith and moans in response to Keith's sensual face before hungrily going in for another kiss and dragging his hands back up Keith's back.

Keith whines softly while Lance is busy with his pants. He closes his eyes and moans into the kiss. "Can I cum now?" he asks once they pull away. He's really close to cumming but he's still holding himself back because Lance told him to.

Lance smiles but doesn't say anything. He slides himself down Keith and licks up Keith's throbbing dick before smirking up at him. "Can't have you making a mess." He teases before taking his dick into his mouth and licking the precum off the tip.

Keith's hip shakes and he lets out a shaky moan. He digs his hands into Lance's hair and lightly grips onto the brown hair. "G-gonna aahhhh~ Cum~!" He throws his head back as far as he can as he arcs his back. Keith cums hard from being it being so built up.

Lance had known it wouldn't be long but is still surprised when Keith cums as quick and hard as he did. After swallowing and licking Keith clean, he climbs back up and bites his own lip before swallowing the lump in his throat. "Can-can I...try taking you?"

Keith hides the wave of nervousness that washed over him. He wants Lance to take him. "Y-yeah, go ahead."

Lance nods and kisses Keith as he almost frantically undresses himself. He sticks two fingers in his mouth wanting to both stretch and slick Keith before he takes him. Even though he _really_ aches to. Once his pants are off, Lance rubs against Keith as he inserts his fingers and thrusts them in and out. He noticeably struggles not to just take Keith.

Keith moans as his insides are stretched. He wonders if Lance feels just as good when he's the bottom one. He thrusts his hips, wanting Lance to be deeper. He doesn't know if Lance noticed but he can feel himself releasing some slick.

Lance is surprised when he feels his fingers starting to move more easily. His breath quickens as he pulls his hand frantically away and leads himself inside. A loud moan escapes his mouth when he enters Keith. "You feel so good." He moans as he carefully starts thrusting.

"So warm," Keith moans. Not being able to control his body, his hips move to match each thrust. "So deep." His worries fade as he gets lots in the pleasure. He wants to at least warn Lance about cumming inside but all he can do is moan.

Lance moans as he thrusts, the sounds getting more and more overpowering as he gets deeper. When he looks down to see Keith moaning and gripping one of the blankets in ecstasy, he can't help but thrust faster. With one hand, he grabs Keith's shoulder to push them closer together. The other hand scratches down Keith's back before Lance moans again.

Keith moans louder. "Lance!" He grips the blanket tighter, his knuckles turning white. Despite having just came, he feels his climax starting to build again. It doesn't help that to Keith, the wet noises seem louder and it only makes him more aroused.

Lance gasps and nearly climaxes the instant Keith screams his name but takes a deep breath and steadies himself. He grabs Keith's hair and moans loudly before struggling to pull himself down to Keith, not stopping his thrusts. With them in this new position, Lance finds himself losing his ability to think straight. He moans loudly before finding Keith's mouth and kissing him deeply. He starts pounding into Keith as soon as their lips meet, using the kiss to muffle what would be horny screams.

Keith tightens around Lance, getting closer and closer to the edge. His thrusts match each pounding, making him scream with how deep Lance is. His instincts kick in and he wraps his legs around Lance, pulling him as close as possible. He wants to be filled. He pulls away from the kiss and begs," Cumming! Fill me!"

Lance finds himself cumming before Keith can even finish his sentence. He screams as he does, beyond pent up from how much he had worked up Keith. "I love you." He pants before kissing him as he finishes cumming.

Keith cums as he is filled. He is left panting heavily and weak. "I love you too," he replies softly after the kiss. He tries to take deep breaths in order to steady his breathing.

Lance runs his hands through Keith's hair and kisses him again before finally pulling himself from Keith. "That was an unexpected breakfast." He teases breathlessly.

Keith chuckles almost inaudibly. "Very unexpected." He cuddles into Lance's arm. "Can you bring the food here?" He asks with a guilty expression. "I don't know if I can get up right now."

Lance blushes and nods. He kisses Keith again before slipping on his pants and heading to the kitchen area to grab the fruit and brings it back to Keith. "Was I...too rough?" He asks, clearly worried about it.

While Lance is away, worry comes back. He scoots as fast as he can to the edge of the bed. He ignores the pain in his hips. Once at the edge, he tries to get as much of Lance's cum as possible. When Lance comes back, he quickly hides his cum covered fingers. "N-not at all."

Lance's eyebrows furrowed in confusion with the way Keith is acting. He sits down beside him gently and kisses his cheek before feeding him a strawberry. "Are you...sure you're alright?"

Keith eats the strawberry before answering," Yeah, just sore." _Should I tell Lance now? I don't want him to worry though._ Still hiding his hand, he cuddles closer to Lance. "It felt amazing. Is it the same for you when I take you?"

Lance smiles and eats a bit himself. Blushing a bit, he nods. "Yeah. It's...I like it." He hands Keith more fruit than props himself up with one arm. "Why else do you think i wanted it so much?"

Keith blushes. "Maybe it was part of a human mating ritual," he mumbles before eating more. He mentally sets a reminder to have a talk with Shiro.

"I mean...it...sorta is?" Lance laughs a bit then shrugs. "But I think it's more... _It feels good_ than anything else." He grabs a handful of berries and eats them before putting a few into Keith's mouth and following them with a playful kiss.

Keith hums into the kiss. "What shall we do after this? Is there somewhere you would like to go or do?" He knows that it won't be easy for him to move around but he doesn't want to keep Lance from doing things.

Lance watches him with a smile and shrugs. "I think...I am pleased just...being here." He boops his nose against Keith's and sighs. "We can find our island later."

Keith smiles and it only grows at the reminder of their island. He pulls Lance down into a hug. While thinking of what they can do in the cave, he remembers the two stones. "Should we make little shrine home things for the dragon stones?" He just feels like they deserve a nice storage place in place of having a burial.

Lance cuddles into the hug until Keith comes up with a plan. He jolts up and the smile on his face answers before he can. "Yes! Oh my gods yes." Grabbing Keith in a huge hug, Lance quickly covers him in kisses. "I can gather some plants from outside and we can cover an area for them, decorate it with plants and pretty rocks." He's already excited about it.

Keith chuckles, the flurry of kisses tickling him. "They'll love it." He kisses Lance on the lips. "You go get started and I'll join you." He's still naked with cum on the inside of his thighs.

"I'll go gather up stuff from outside to decorate." He notes why Keith isn't moving so he kisses him once more and winks. "Go ahead and clean up. I'll be back soon." Then Lance takes off outside, hoping to gather all the prettiest things he can.

Keith watches with a loving smile until Lance stops to search the ground. He slowly sits up, and finishes cleaning himself. He licks his hand to clean it, blushing lightly. He then slips on his clothes. His hips aren't as sore as before but he can still feel it. Just as he starts to walk towards Lance, his purple earring glows. Lotor is calling for him, most likely related to the hunters. He sighs and shifts into dragon form. "Lance," he calls as he exits the cave.

Lance had darted off toward a field of flowers to pick the ones he liked best. He hadn't heard Keith call for him and honestly hadn't expected to hear him until he got back inside. His heart bubbles with excitement thinking about decorating a little shrine for the dragon stones.

"Lance?" Keith tries again. It honestly worries him a little that Lance had suddenly disappeared from where he last saw him. He wants to let Lance know before he leaves but Lotor is rushing him. He looks around with sad eyes but tells himself that Lance will be okay. "Lance! Lotor is calling! I'll be back soon! I love you!" he yells and waits a little bit longer.

Lance thinks he hears Keith so he looks around but when he doesn't hear him again and can't see him, Lance shrugs and just goes back to gathering flowers. He starts to hum some silly song he had heard sang back in the days of his childhood.

Keith sighs when Lance doesn't reply. Hopefully whatever Lotor needs will be quick. He jumps off the edge and flies as fast as he can to Lotor.

Lance looks to the pile of flowers he has and nods in success. He scoops them up and carries them into the cave. Scoping out the best spot, he starts to decorate a small hole in one of the walls. Careful to mix the colors and make an adorable nest for them Lance looks back toward the sleeping area, surprised Keith hasn't joined yet. "Keith?"

Behind him a group of three men creep into the cave. The one closest to Lance pulls out a sleeping splash potion. They throw it at Lance's feet and quickly steps back as fog spreads from the shattered bottle.

Lance's eyes grow heavy and his head starts to spin before he realizes what it might be. Fear strikes his heart but he knows it's too late. "Keith!" He screams out before collapsing.

Meanwhile, Lotor had called Keith because he had found the hideout of the main part of the hunter's guild. "What took so long?" He questions, not so much angrily as with a tone of pure curiosity.

"I had to tell Lance I was leaving and he went further away than I expected." Keith doesn't transform, it's easier to move around in dragon form. "Did you find them?" he asks, assuming they got information from the ones they captured.

"Of course." Lotor climbs onto Keith, he had thought ahead and not had Keith show up too near the base. "I wouldn't bother you and your new mate so soon." He leads Keith toward the location and then motions for them to hide.

While on the way, Keith has a bad feeling. He hopes that Lance hadn't noticed he has disappeared yet. He wants to ask how many people would be inside but doesn't since he knows that he can't really whisper in this form.

Lotor looks at Keith and nods before motioning to sneak in. He prepares to use his magic silently.

Meanwhile, other members of the group are carrying in a mainly covered body from another entry point. It is limp and the skin is familiarly tan.

Keith shifts to his two legged form. How the heck will a dragon sneak around a human base? His arms are tense as he quietly walks towards the door, ready to attack at any moment.

Inside the base, a still unconscious Lance is tied to a pole with a black bag over his head. He is breathing, shallow breaths, but they are steady. Several men surround him and are bickering back and forth about what should be done with the "dragon fucker" and the dragon that will surely be looking for him.

When Keith peeks in, he is immediately enraged. Not waiting for Lotor's signal, he charges in and attacks whoever is in his way to Lance. He manages to knock a few down before their stronger goons arrive.

Lotor growls before heading in to try to help. He is always one for a plan and he hasn't quite figured out the best one by the time Keith is swarmed. Working his hardest to keep them all off him, Lotor starts to blast them with magic, careful to avoid the rampaging dragon. "KEITH GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF!" He shouts as the two of them are quickly being overrun.  
Hearing Lotor snaps Lance out of his daze. He listens anxiously as he cant speak with the gag in his mouth and try as he might, Lance can't move

Keith lets out a roar as he is hit by a strong lightning attack. His wings extend out, trying to make himself look bigger. The other hunters take this as their chance to attack with daggers. It hurts, the growing number of wounds, but all he can think about is killing them all.

Lotor watches Keith and sees the growing number of wounds. He helps finish the last few off, doing significantly less than Keith, who isn't looking so great. Once the enemy is defeated, he hurries over to him. "Keith. Are you ok?"

Keith staggers a bit, the adrenaline rush slowing down. "Y-yeah." He has lost quite a lot of blood. "Lance," he whimpers as he looks at his tied up mate. He tries to walk over but stumbles and falls. His body feels heavy and it hurts to breath.

Lotor hurries over to Lance and quickly unties him. "Go help him!"  
Lance rips the gag from his mouth and coughs before hurrying over to Keith. "Oh my gods. Keith. I'm here." He carefully grabs him before looking back to Lotor. "How can I help him?"

"Use your healing magic you idiot!" Lotor is starting to panic. He can see Keith slowly slipping away and he can't do anything about it.

"I dont have magic!" Lance shouts but grabs Keith up anyway. His hands shakily cover the wound bleeding most. "So much blood." He panics as he looks him over and feels tears starting to fall.

Keith weakly nuzzles closer to Lance. He lets out a broken whine which hurts both Lance and Lotor's heart. "You do," Lotor says quietly. He wishes so badly that he knew healing magic, but that isn't one you can just easily learn.

Lance feels his tears starting to fall and just bites his lower lip. He squeezes his eyes shut then presses his forehead against Keith's. "I severely hope you are right." Lance sobs as he focuses on the thought of "save Keith. Don't let him die." He's completely unaware of how much magic he dispels in doing so. He starts to glow as the wounds on Keith start to heal. Still afraid that he won't be able to help though, Lance keeps his eyes closed and face against Keith's.

Keith's breathing slows to its proper pace and Lotor sighs with relief. He is too focused on watching the wounds on Keith fade that he doesn't notice some of his own fading. With a sad smile he finally gives the two alone time. He he goes outside to call in help to gather everything here.

Lance doesn't even realize that he's done anything. When he hears Lotor leaving, his heart drops so he opens his eyes and quickly looks toward him. With his eyes still watering, Lance thinks he just looks sad so he bows his head and presses it against Keith's chest.

"Lance," Keith rasps softly. The wounds are all gone but his energy is not back. His chest rumbles, edging Lance to look at him.

Lance jumps and looks Keith over in amazement. "Did..." He shakes his head and grabs Keith in a hug. "Don't ever do that again." His voice is weak and full of emotion as he grips him tight.

Keith nuzzles Lance. "I had to save you." He weakly wraps his arms around Lance. "They stole my treasure."

Lance laughs weakly as he continues to cry, not yet able to stop. "But I almost lost my everything in the process." He whines before kissing Keith's neck once. Suddenly he perks up. "How did you even know where I was?"

"This is the hunters hideout." Keith says then looks around for Lotor. "Lotor got the location and I brought him here." Not finding the man, he nuzzles Lance again. "We didn't know they had taken you. I'm so sorry for not being able to protect you."

"Stop apologizing!" Lance whines before pulling back and wiping his eyes. "I was fine! You were the one who...who almost died." He looks Keith over in amazement. "Did I really heal you?"

Keith looks down to where he had been stabbed the deepest. It's completely gone except for the very light scar left behind. "I don't see anyone else who could have done it," he says as he looks back up at Lance. He hadn't seen Lance glowing, his eyes were closed and even if they were open, he would have been to out of it to notice.

Lance grabs Keith tight and exhales. "So I managed to save you." He laughs awkwardly. "I don't know how...but at least I did it." He kisses the scar then grabs Keith's face and kisses him passionately.

Keith hums into the kiss. "My magical treasure," he mumbles when they pull away to breath. "You've saved my life twice now."

"Twice?" Lance asks curiously before standing and offering a hand to Keith. "Are you good to walk?"

Keith takes Lance's hand and slowly stands up. "I think I can." His legs are still a bit wobbly. "You don't remember the first time? When they attacked at the waterfall?" He swears he told Lance that he saved his life then.

"Oh. Right." Lance rubs the back of his head. "I guess I just...I'm still a bit flustered is all."

Keith chuckles as boops Lance's cheek. "Did they hurt you at all?" He didn't see any wounds on Lance earlier but it could have been hidden.

"They put me to sleep. Beyond that I'm not sure." He smiles back at Keith and boops him back. "Where did Lotor go?"

"He's probably outside." Lotor wouldn't just leave all these hunters here. "Would you like to talk to him about your magic?"

Lance shakes his head. "I- no." He still finds it hard to believe that he now has magic to begin with. "I just figured you want to make sure he is fine too."

Keith nuzzles Lance. "Thank you. I'll go check up on him. Do you want to stay here or check on him too?"

"I don't want to leave your side." Lance answers simply, tightening his arms around Keith's.

Keith smiles and nuzzles Lance again. "Then together we go," he says before slowly walking out of the building.

Lotor is standing a little bit away from the door, watching as several dragons land. "Lotor, you okay?" Keith asks once he and Lance are outside.

Lance cuddles into Keith as he walks outside to find Lotor. The man with long white hair is speaking with another group by the time they get outside. He is telling them all what to do and informing them of the clean up required. Finally, he turns back to Keith and nods. "I'm fine. Actually, what wounds I did have seem to have been healed in Lance's attempt to save you."

Keith smiles and cuddled Lance. "That's good. Did we manage to get most of the hunters?" He knows with how he barged in, there is a few that probably ran away.

"Two got away. However, they were caught as everyone arrived. " Lotor walks up to Keith and puts a hand on his shoulder. "You did amazingly." Then he turns to Lance. "With the help of your _not magical_ mate that is."

Keith laughs. "Yes, my _non_ magical mate did amazing." He sends Lance a teasing look. "It's no wonder our wounds heal fast."

Lance blushes and buries his face in Keith's shoulder. "I really didn't know ok?" He mumbles.

Lotor smiles then clears his throat. "Are you good to return home?"

"Yea. You got everything else covered? I don't mind helping out if you need it," Keith offered. He knows Lotor doesn't want to over work him or anything but he is Lotor's only contracted dragon.

"I'm fairly certain you and Lance handled your end of the job plenty well." Lotor smiles then watches as two of his helpers step forward.

"Wait...Lance?" The woman questions before pulling down her hood to reveal a face strikingly similar to Lance's. Lance's eyes grow wide at her voice but his grip on Keith's arm only tightens.

Keith lightly glares at the woman, he doesn't have a good feeling about her. "Ready to go?" He asks Lance softly as he tears his eyes away from her. He shifts his body to hide his mate from sight, not caring how rude it might be.

The woman hurries up to Lance despite Keith's motions. She grabs up Lance and hugs him close. "My boy. I haven't seen you in so long. I miss you!" The man, who must clearly be the father walks up and places a hand on his head.

"Son." He says firmly. Lance struggles to get away but also can't help but tear up a bit as he really did miss them. Meanwhile, Lotor looks to Keith in confusion and shrugs.

Keith sighs and pouts. Lotor isn't helping at all. He sees Lance trying to get away so he transforms and towers over the three. He lowers his head and huffs out smoke, covering the three humans in front of him. Hopefully it scared the other two.

Lance turns to Keith as the smoke makes his mother falter. He darts behind Keith's leg to glare at his parents. "Let's go home Keith." He speaks and hate is heard in his tone.

"Darling, why don't you come home with us? We've missed you so. And I'm certain your mate would be happy to see you with family again."

Keith growls to keep the parents away as he lowers himself for Lance to climb on. The father dared to still take a step forward so he breathes enough fire to make him take a step back. "He doesn't want you," he growls.

"You left me on the streets. I have no desire to return to you now." Lance climbs onto Keith's back and kisses his neck. "Let's go home."

Keith flaps his wings purposely harder to make the two have to brace themselves while Lotor is just standing there, calmly. Keith quickly leaves as soon as his feet are off the ground.

Lance clings to Keith and tries to keep from sobbing. He had wanted to see his family again, but it somehow hurt to see them only want him after hearing he was magic.

Hoping it would help, his chest rumbles and he shakes his scales. He flies faster, wanting to cuddle Lance as soon as possible. When he lands, he quickly walks to the bed before letting Lance climb off.

Lance grins when he sees the scales shimmer then hugs Keith as best he can until they land. Once back home, Lance first darts over to where the dragon stones had been wrapped up for safe keeping and sighs in relief to see them safe. Then he walks back to the bed and collapses, still trying not to be emotional. "Still feeling ok?"

Keith nods and curls around Lance. In dragon form, he gives off more warmth so he assumes Lance would rather have that than him in two legged form. "Are you feeling okay?" He nuzzles Lance's side with worry in his eyes.

Lance cuddles into Keith and looks into his eyes with a smile. "We are safe at home, together." He boops Keith's snout then kisses it. "Of course I'm fine."

"But you were sniffing on the way here. My mate is sad." Keith gently nudges Lance. "Is it because of the two humans?"

Lance looks down and sighs before nodding. "They were...are? My parents." He swallows hard. "But...they made the choice to kick me out because I couldn't figure out magic. So...to see them care so much after so long it...hurt I guess."

Keith frowns, even if it can't really show. He curls tighter around Lance, the tip of his tail now near his head. "They don't deserve to be called your parents. I'll make sure they know they don't belong anywhere near you."

Lance smiles and pets Keith's tail. "I know. And I'm more thankful for that than you realize." He scoots down to better cuddle into Keith and gazes up at him lovingly. "But no more diving into enemy bases head first and nearly dying, ok?"

"So long as you're not tied up inside, I promise," Keith says with a smile. "No one will ever steal my treasure again." He presses the tip of his snout against Lance's cheek.

Lance chuckles and nods before taking a deep breath. "I'm never leaving your side again so it shouldn't be an issue." He agrees sweetly.

Keith's chest rumbles. "I love you so much, my treasure."

"I love you t-"

"Keith! Are you alright?" Shiro interrupts the two as he barrels into the cave. His eyes are wide with panic and Matt is on his back with a smaller figure nearly buried in blankets. "Lotor told us what happened."

Keith is a little shocked. "Yeah, I'm okay. Lance healed me good as new," he says as he slowly uncurls. He transforms into two legged form and cuddles Lance.

Matt slides off with the smaller figure, allowing Shiro to transform into his human form. "Lotor told us about that part too but you know Shiro," Matt says with a slight smirk.

Lance blushes a bit, still finding it strange that he healed someone. He curls into Keith but can't help but strain his neck trying to see whatever Matt was holding.

"Yes, but Lotor's version of fine isn't always the same as mine." Shiro barks back to Matt before hurrying up to Keith and hugging both him and Lance.

Keith laughs and hugs Shiro back. Having his arms full, Matt just stands next to the group hug, bouncing the bundle of blankets a little. Keith looks over to Matt and calls," Kere."

Lance watches Matt then looks over to Keith with wide, excited eyes when he hears Keith call to the bundle of blankets in a cooing voice. "Is that a baby?!" He asks excitedly. "Can I see?" Lance has always loved kids and there is no hiding that right now.

Shiro chuckles. "I take it your mate is a fan of children." Pausing, he furrows his eyebrows. "Does he...know yet?"

Keith looks down in shame. "I-I didn't tell him yet." He then scoots closer to Shiro to talk quieter. "There didn't seem to be a right time when he wanted to take me in human form."

Shiro sighs. "It...can be a rather unusual thing to mention to your human mate." He rubs his forehead then looks over and smirks. "If he's anything like Matt, he wouldn't believe it right away anyway."

"I don't think he can not believe it seeing Kere," Keith chuckles softly," But seeing that he love kids, hopefully he won't mind." He then watches Lance a loving gaze.

Matt chuckles and angles the child to face Lance. It's a girl with brown hair darker than Matt's with a streak of white above her right eye. Her eyes are a pretty orange and she has purple scales. "Say hi," Matt says in his baby voice.

Lance covers his face and smiles before crawling over toward her and waving. "Hey there!" He sings to the girl looking at him with big, bright eyes.

"Hi." The girls says quietly before looking back to Matt. "Matt, who he?" She asks curiously.

Answering for Matt, Lance holds out his hand and smiles. "I'm Lance!"

"It's Dad," Matt whines with an exaggerated sad face.

That causes Keith to laugh. "Does she call you by name too?" he asks Shiro.

"No." Shiro laughs. "She just refuses to call Matt dad for some reason." He scoots over toward his daughter and nuzzles her playfully. "You know Dad gets really sad that you don't call him dad right?"

"Dad." Kere points to Shiro then to Matt. "Dad!" She smiles a huge grin.

"That's right!" Shiro starts to count using his fingers then.

"Kere is both...of yours?" Lance asks with his head tilted.

"Yup! Did Keith not tell you?" Matt glances at Keith who has a guilty look on his face again. "Male dragons are the ones that get pregnant."

Lance looks to Keith for a second then back to Kere and smiles. "I can certainly see both of you in here." He admits before holding his arms out and looking to Matt and Shiro for permission. "Can I?"

Shiro actually laughs under his breath at Lance's lack of reaction before elbowing Keith. "Doesn't seem to mind. Don't tell me you two plan to give Kere a new family member to grow up with already."

Keith blushes. "If Lance wants to, I don't see why not." He loves the image of Lance with a baby in his arms. It makes his heart melt.

"Sure," Matt says with a huge smile. He gently hands over Kere. "Her name is Kerophilia but we all call her Kere."

She looks up Lance for a little bit before trying to say his name. "Lan."

Shiro laughs then watches Lance for a second before giving Keith a one arm hug. "At least it seems like he will make a great dad." He teases quietly.

Lance's smile grows as he scoops Kere up and starts to sway her as though he's cared for a child his whole life. "That's a beautiful name for a beautiful girl." He is clearly speaking to the child now, voice cooing in a pitch higher than normal. When she says his name, Lance laughs and nods. "Lance. Yup. That's me!" He looks over to Keith with a momentary look that says he's offended. "Why didn't you tell me I had such an adorable little niece to flatter?!"

Keith's blush darkens and his stomach tightens. "I didn't know you liked kids," he says with raised shoulders. He relaxes when Lance smiles again.

"Keef," Kere calls with grabby hands. Keith chuckles and cuddles up to Lance. Kere notices the new earring and pokes it.

"Keef." Lance repeats with a smile. "It's so cute." He almost squeaks. Kissing Keith's cheek, he looks down to Kere and angles his head so she can see that his matches. When he looks back at Keith, Lance smiles. "I love kids." Then he leans in and whispers, "though I had no idea that...well...you know." He is blushing so he hopes that does well enough to get his point across. "Though...if it ends up being something you want, I will be happy to oblige."

"Would you like? I wouldn't mind," Keith whispers back. He blushes, his scales shimmering.

Kere notices and giggles. "Shiny! Keef is shiny!"

"Isn't Keef so pretty when he's shiny?" Lance half teases Keith as he speaks to Kere. "I think he is anyway." Lance then looks back to Keith with love overflowing from his eyes. He leans in and kisses Keith before whispering in his ear. "I'm never leaving your side. So whatever you want...whenever you want it...I'm here for you."

Keith's blush darkens. "We'll need to find out island first, then we can try for a baby," he whispers then hides his face into Lance's neck.

"A baby? Will they play with me?" Kere asks, eyes sparkling. They often play with Pidge but a baby is closer to her age. "Will they be a girl like me?"

Lance nods in agreement before kissing Keith's cheek. "With a volcano for you." He then looks back to Kere and laughs. "I'm sure they will but I...don't think we get to decide whether its a girl." He tickles Kere's cheeks. "Would you mind if it ends up being a boy?" Leaning down with a playful smile, Lance whispers, "It'll be pretty like shiny Keef either way."

Kere smiles widely. "That means I can still play with their hair!" She yells excitedly then starts playing with Keith's hair. He just laughs, not having heard Lance's last comment. Keith leans down a bit to make it easier for Kere.

Lance cuddles into Keith and smiles before kissing his neck and watching Kere play with his hair. Knowing Keith will blush, Lance grins before whispering, "add an island behind us and I could get use to this for sure."

Keith blush darkens. "Soon. We'll have your own little family soon." He carefully turns towards Lance and kisses him. "Our own little happy family."


End file.
